Butterflies and Blood
by Added-OC
Summary: Follow young Emily Hagraven as she learns to live in Central City alone after her parents are killed in a Chimera attack. See her ups and downs. successes and failures as she learns to preform alchemy, and to love as she journeys to become the next state alchemist. (rated M for adult themes and content in later chapters) Re-post of old story on old pro lost-in-otaku
1. Chapter 1

I do not own FMA or any of its affiliates. Please enjoy.

(SPOILER: Emily is a character of my own making. She is not a part of the original FMA world, and neither are her parents or uncle.)

Chapter 1:

Blood was everywhere; it seeped into the braided carpet and ran out over the stone floor. Long streaks of it that began in star-burst at the top ran down the walls of the small room. The thing that most disturbed young Emily was the blood that seemed to continually seep from her parents, who where carelessly thrown over each other in a heap in the middle of their small living room. Her silver eyes where wide with terror as she sat on her knees in the growing puddle of blood that was once her living room carpet. Her brown locks fell around her shoulders limply, some of the silky tresses where now sticky and red with fresh blood. Her face was streaked with tears and brown muck, a sick mixture that hid her usually pretty features.

There was a man there after a while, trowing a gray sheet respectively over her dead parents and blocking the sickening sight from her vision which was still slightly blurred with tears. A blonde woman in a starched blue and white uniform was wrapping her in a coat and muttering soothing words in her ear which she ignored. Voices where all around her as her small home slowly filled with people. One man who seemed to be in charge patted her head. He had odd white gloves with transmutation circles on the palms and nicely kept black hair. His uniform matched the woman's, and pretty much everyone else in the room but for herself and a strange golden haired boy with a bright red coat and a tall man in armor. The man who had patted her head squatted down before her and met her silver eyes with his deep blackish brown ones.

"Do you know what they were after, The ones who did this to your parents?" He asked in an authoritative voice. She shook her head slowly and pointed towards her fathers study.

"They went in there." She croaked, her voice sore from crying. He nodded and placed one hand on her shoulder, squeezing it tenderly

"Perhaps it would be best if we got the girl away from here Colonel Mustang sir."  
>The blonde woman had appeared at her side and was saluting the man, Colonel Mustang. He nodded and pointed towards the open front door with a wave of his hand.<p>

"Havoc is outside, He can take her to Central and we will find a safe place from there. You never know, they may return for her." He stated and gave her a gentle smile, "Don't you worry, we will protect you." He assured her warmly. All she could think was: why didn't you protect my parents? Blindly she allowed the woman to lead her out of the dimly lit house and into the shockingly bright light of the midday sun. A blonde man with a haircut that resembled something a three year old would think of and a fine coat of stubble on his chin was leaned against a very important looking black car with the symbol of Amestris embezzled on the door. He was halfway through smoking a cigarette and simply allowing the ashes to fall between his slightly scuffed military boots. She was led to stand before the back door of the car and then told to wait there as the blonde woman spoke in quick whispers to the blonde man. After a moment the man seemed to materialize before her eyes.

"Hi there, the names Havoc, Jean Havoc." he held his hand out politely for her to shake. She looked at the hand for a second, ungloved and scarred with tobacco stains at the tip of his two longest fingers, this man was a military official, not an alchemist.

"Emily Hagraven." She stated as she accepted his hand and gave it a quick shake. It felt odd to be so formal at a time like this. She could still smell the blood and rotting smell of death that was seeping from her home like a black cloud. A flash of red from the front door of her home caught her eye and she turned her head to see the strange red coated boy who was leading the armored man outside with a sour look on his face. Havoc waved them over with a smile that caused him to drop his now spent cigarette. She moved closer to the car, running one finger over a chrome door handle, tying to do anything but look at what once was her home. Suddenly the three of them where walking towards her, the man in the armor looked meek and scared to her, nervous energy seemed to jump from his shiny frame as they drew closer and closer. she noticed that the boys eyes matched his hair in an eerie too perfect way that made her wonder if maybe they were fake.

"Emily, this is Edward and Alphonse Elric. They will be joining us on our trip to Central." Jean Havoc stated through his new cigarette that he was busy lighting with a fancy looking lighter.

"H-hi Emily, nice to make your acquaintance." The armored man held out a hand to her and she watched as it shook slightly," My name is Alphonse Elric."

"Nice to meet you Alphonse." she said with a forced smile as she reached to accept his hand.

"Why are you being so formal and stiff! You just had a terrible thing happen to you, you can at least cry." The blonde who she assumed was Edward Elric jumped between them quickly, stopping the polite shake before their hands touched, "Come on we have to get to central before Winry." he muttered as he shot a glare at Alphonse.

"Sorry brother, I wasn't thinking." Alphonse looked nervous once again as her rubbed the shiny helmet like someone would rub their head. She thought this was odd as the front door was opened for her by the kind Havoc. She gave him a polite nod and slid into the leather covered passenger seat. After a moment the car sagged with the weight of his armor as Alphonse climbed in the backseat behind her, followed by the sour and sullen Edward. Havoc climbed into the driver's seat beside her and smiled.

"Everyone ready?" he asked as he cranked the car, sending the vibrations from the engine up her spine. She slumped in her seat and rested her head against the glass of the window. Her eyes watered as the car pulled away and turned to go down the driveway. She watched the small cabin drift away from her in the rear-view mirror. As they pulled onto the main road the first of many more warm tears slid down her cheek. She tried to be quiet as she cried but the sobs she kept from escaping her throat caused her body to shake. She bit her lip and pulled her knees up to her chest as the tears cut warm lines down her cheeks. The other three seemed to politely ignore her tears as trees and houses fell away from her blurred vision to be replaced by concrete and brick buildings. The ride was quiet after her tears finally stopped. She was sitting a little straighter and even looking around in awe at the large official looking buildings as Havoc drove them towards the very heart of Central city.

A menacingly large white building loomed over the heart of Amestris and Central city. She looked upon it in awe as they drove closer and closer. Large bright green yards where separated by paved drives and perfectly trimmed hedges. large trees sat in the middle of each of the four yards with tables set up in octagons around them. She saw a few groups of blue and white uniformed soldiers running across a couple of the yards as their commanding officers called out orders to them. She noticed a few people at a group of tables with their noses in large books, a couple of the people had transmutation circles on gloves like the Colonel. She heard Edward groan from the back seat as they drew even closer to the large main building. Havoc shrugged and chuckled as a angry looking blonde girl approached their slowing car.

"Edward Elric!" The girl shouted as she leaned close to the back window, "What did I hear about your automail!" Emily briefly wondered why almost everyone was a blonde as the two exchanged loud angry sounding words from the backseat. She turned to look but stopped short when she caught Havoc's eye. His look he was shooting her said: stay out of it.

"Thank you for the ride Mr. Havoc." Alphonse's child-like voice called as he pulled his blonde brother from the car and away from the other girls wildly swinging wrench. Emily raised one eyebrow but kept quiet as Havoc waved goodbye to the three as they made their way into the large building.

"The boss is in for it this time for sure, He busted a valve in his arm and that Winry is so picky about that automail." Havoc chuckled as he pulled out of the drive for the Command center and back into the busy streets of the city. She frowned as she thought carefully over his words.

"Automail? wait is Alphonse your boss?" she asked as she scratched the dry muck from her cheek. She felt like she would never be clean again, even after a hundred baths.

"Oh no, Al is a sweet kid but Edward is who i call boss." He said with a smile as he flipped his spent cigarette out of his open driver's side window. She raised her eyebrow, sure the shorter guy had worn a coat in the middle of the summer, and gloves on each hand to boot but she didn't think he seemed like an amputee.

"When did he loose his arm?" she asked as she leaned back in her seat with her eyes fixed on him.

"When he was just a kid, I think he was eleven." Havoc shrugged, "he lost a leg too, Winry came through for him though. She built him automail and installed it in less than a month. He was pretty impressive too, managed to learn to use them like normal limbs in less than a year. It usually takes at least tree to go through the therapy he managed to fight his way through." He was smiling as he said each word, and she thought his eyes seemed to sparkle as he spoke.

"You sound like you have a lot of respect for him." She stated as they pulled up to a large apartment building.

"Yeah." He cut the car off and pulled the key from the ignition," I guess you're right, the kid lost everything but his brother, and he almost lost him. Now he is well on his way to being one of the best state alchemists I have ever seen." He shrugged and looked past her to the building beyond her window, "Ready to go meet the family you will be staying with?" he asked.

"Staying with?" she asked as her head turned quickly to scan the building. It was plain enough looking, just a red brick building with rows of evenly spaced windows and a fire escape running up one side.

"Oh yeah the Hughes family, nice people and Mrs. Hughes makes the best homemade meals you have ever tasted." He patted her shoulder and opened his door. She waited a moment before following suit and stepping out of the car. She followed him up the cracking stone steps and into the surprisingly cool main hallway of the apartment building. there was an old-fashioned looking staircase that lead up to the floors above them. She studied the wrought iron railing as Havoc moved to read a sign on the wall nearby.

He tapped her shoulder as he stepped on the first of many steps. She turned away from the shiny metal to look at his face, which seemed bare without a cigarette hanging from his lips. He pointed upwards with the wave of his hand.

"They live on the fourth floor. their apartment number is 407." she nodded and allowed him to lead her up the three flights of stairs until they came out on the fourth floor. They came out across from a door marked 402. The rest of the doors but for 401 lined the other side of the hallway leading off to their left. She followed him, after his quick grumble about non-smoking buildings, down the hallway until they reached the correct door. He knocked upon the dark wood of the door three times in a quick succession. After a pause the door creaked open to reveal a lovely older woman with light brown hair she had pulled back in a bun and the most beautiful green eyes Emily had ever seen.

"You must be Emily." The woman smiled at her warmly the way a mother would, sending a pang of sadness straight to her heart.

(End of chapter 1. This is a re-post of the story. I listened to the great reviews of Reminiscent-Afterthought and followed her suggestions as well as editing a few things I found wrong myself. I hope you will all enjoy and read the re-posted chapters as well as the new ones I will be posting soon. For the original go to lost-in-otaku, that was my original profile here.)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The Hughes family home was quaint and very warm feeling. Emily had entered not knowing what to expect and had been rewarded with a living room that looked much like one her own dear mother would have picked for their home. Two small couches faced each other with a small coffee table between them while two lounge chairs sat at opposite ends of said table. Jean Havoc sat in one of the chairs while she sat at one end of a light green colored couch. Two steaming cups of tea sat on the table before them, Emily's tea was already half gone due to her drinking it quickly to calm her nerves when Mrs. Hughes had set it before her.

Mrs. Hughes was currently in the small kitchen pulling out a mouthwatering fresh apple pie from her oven. A small girl who appeared to be around the age of two with adorable pigtails and big bright green eyes sat at the kitchen table that she could see through the opened door, the young girl was giggling and happily holding her arms out to her mother without a care in the world. Her eyes stung with new tears as she thought of her own mother; lying dead either still slumped over her father or on an operating table where they would cut her open to find out what she already knew.

"Here." she looked up to see a white napkin as a warm tear slid down her cheek. She accepted Havoc's small gift and wiped her eyes until they were dry, and just in time. Mrs. Hughes and her daughter walked into the room just as she slid the napkin into her pocket.

"I hope you two are hungry." The nice woman sat the pie and four plates down one the coffee table and gave Emily a gentle smile.

"I'm starving, your food always tastes so good, I couldn't turn down a single bite." Havoc

stated as he wiped drool from his chin.

"How about you dear?" Mrs. Hughes smiled down at her with a plate already laden with a large slice of pie ready and waiting.

"Thank you." she stated quietly as she accepted the offered plate.

"Gracia, how is your husband, haven't heard from him in a while." Havoc asked through a mouthful of pie. Emily opted to place her pie on the table and simply sip from her slowly cooling tea. The two adults shared a murmured conversation in which she caught the words "uncle" and "far away". Her uncle Albert immediately came to mind. He was a cheerful black haired man with bright brown eyes that always hid behind a pair of half-moon spectacles. She remembered fondly the times she would spend at his house with his pet greyhound Henry. He was a military official like Mr. Havoc, and was usually away from home, either fighting a gang of rogues or witnessing the signing of important papers.

"Are you gonna stay with us forever?" she looked down to see the young pig tailed girl staring up at her with bright green eyes.

"I don't know." She said slowly as she turned to the adults who were now looking at her. Gracia smiled and looked down as Havoc scratched his head.

"Well," He began," We are hoping to get in touch with your uncle, but you are about to be seventeen and that's a legal adult." she nodded solemnly as his words sunk in.

"So as soon as I am seventeen then I will be on my own." She stated as she dropped her head, "I guess that makes sense but, what about my belongings? I left everything back, back there." She did not want to say back at home, it was too painful to think of, all she could see when the word came to mind was a bloodstained world.

"The whole house has to be documented for evidence, it may take a while, I hope you understand." Havoc seemed to slowly sink into a depression as he spoke the words.

"In other words, I can't even have a change of clothes." She almost growled, sudden anger made her vision go red and her fists to clench," Some help you all are! You expect me to just go on without anything! Haven't I lost enough today!" She stood and ran from the apartment. Hot tears cut down her cheeks as she ran down each flight of stairs and out of the building. Her heart was pounding as she turned down a random street and began running once more.

"To hell with them!" she cried as she ran," To hell with all of those heartless bastards!" she didn't know where she was going, all she knew was she had to get away, From Gracia's sad eyes and Havoc's awkward glances. They felt pity for her but they were wrong. She was the daughter of Sarah and Louis Hagraven, two of the greatest alchemists she had ever known; she did not need their pity. She turned down an alleyway blindly and tripped on a loose brick, one of many that lined the sidewalks. She fell hard, skinning her hands and knees as she landed on the rough uneven ground. Her hands swelled and dripped with oozing red blood as she watched them. Her left palm was penetrated by a shiny rock that was turning a bright shade of crimson with her fresh blood. She squeezed her hands into fists, pushing the rock deeper into her flesh and ignoring the sharp pain it gave her.

"I hate them all!" she cried up at the clear sky between the buildings. Her tears where coming faster now. Falling in heavy drops from her chin to her chest, but she didn't care. She was bloody and filthy, and most of all she was completely alone in the world. Her heart felt like it was breaking all over again as she thought this.

"Well well well, I thought I heard someone's pitiful cries." She looked up to see a dark haired woman wearing a skin tight dress that clung to her every curve and made her breasts very noticeable, almost as much as the tattoo that rested between them. The woman had sensual full lips and bright purple eyes that where half lidded as if she was bored of looking down at Emily. Her long slender arms where crossed just under her breasts and her legs where slightly apart, her left hip cocked out to the side as she stood there.

"Can I eat the girl?" A short, fat, bald man with a large nose and an even larger mouth appeared beside the strange woman. His huge arms dragged beside him and Emily watched in shock as he lifted one massive paw of a hand to his lips to press his index finger, which was roughly the size of her wrists, into them. A single thick line of drool seeped from his lips onto his finger as his purple eyes stared at her. He was in black, his tight tank top and pants where a deep ink black while his scuffed boots where a slightly lighter shade.

"Now now Gluttony my dear, look at her, you'll get a tummy ache if you eat her, she is much too bony." The woman's voice was like velvet laced with poison. It sounded so smooth and sweet but with a bitter edge that made Emily cringe away.

"Who, who are you? What do you want? I don't have anything worth stealing." She stuttered as she used her sore hands to back away from the strange couple. Their purple eyes where mysterious and chilled her to the core.

"Who we are doesn't matter you little worm." the woman's voice cut through her as she slowly began to walk toward Emily, "Don't worry we aren't here to steal anything from you, we just need a victim, an example if you will." She reached out as if to touch Emily, who had a sudden burst of adrenaline which allowed her to jump up and turn away from the two. Then she took off faster than she had ever run before.

Her feet pounded down on the pavement over and over as she ran down the street, past families and people who stopped to stare at her as if her actions where the strangest thing they have ever seen. She did not look back to see if the two where following her, to do that she would have to slow down and that did not feel like an option. She closed her eyes against the strange stares and pushed herself to run faster. A stitch bloomed painfully in her side but she did not slow down. Her heart was beating faster and faster in her ears, it was loud. So loud that she didn't hear who was yelling at her until she ran into a hard half metal half flesh chest. The impact sent her back onto her buttocks hard enough to knock the wind out of her lungs. She coughed and looked up through the blinding sunlight to see two gold orbs of eyes staring down at her. Blonde hair stood up in an antenna like way right above the eyes and right below them a mouth hung open in a look of shock and awe.

"Miss Hagraven?" She turned to see the shiny metal body that could only belong to Alphonse, just as the child-like voice could only be his as well. He held a large hand out which she accepted, allowing the large man to pull her to her feet," What are you doing here?" He asked as she futilely dusted off her clothes.

"These two strange people were chasing me. I think they were trying to kill me." She stated as she finally turned to look behind her only to see an almost empty street and no pursuers," I don't know where they went."

"Why where you on your own?" She turned to see Edwards angry gold eyes flash. It was odd to her, they were so full of worry a second before.

"I just had to have a moment alone." she was calming down now. Finally feeling safe enough to relax her legs and arms," Havoc, and Mrs. Hughes, they were just looking at me like I was some pitiful little girl. I lost my parents today, I don't need to lose my dignity as well." She fought back the tears that threatened the corners of her eyes, crying now would just make her seem like what she didn't want, a pitiful lost little girl.

"You look like you could use a warm shower, and maybe some food." Edward stated with a sigh," You might as well come with us; we kind of get what you're going through." He turned and waved his right hand in the air in a follow me motion. She turned to Alphonse who simply nodded and followed in line behind Edward. She rubbed her neck and winced at the pain it brought her still sore palm, and followed behind the two as they made their way down the street.

(End Of chapter 2)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The brother's small apartment wasn't very impressive; other than the stacks and stacks of books laid around everywhere there was nothing but the bare essentials, and barely any of those. Emily felt her skin tingling from the rough scrubbing she had done during her quick shower. She now sat on a bed that felt as if it was never used and picking apart a peanut butter sandwich instead of eating it. Edward was laid across the bed beside the one she sat on. His mouth was open slightly and his metal hand rested lightly on his chest as he slept. He looked peaceful in his sleep, the line that she thought never left his forehead had smoothed out causing him to look younger and, she swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat as she studied him, attractive. Alphonse was squatted down by a table that looked much too small beside his large frame. He was vigorously studying a book that looked to be an alchemical science journal.

She sat the plate that she had finely shredded her sandwich onto on the bedside table between the two beds and moved to join him at the table. He did not look up from his book as she pulled a chair close and leaned near his shoulder to look at the page he was reading so diligently. It had a transmutation circle on it with a chart telling what every part of it meant and did. The page next to it was full of handwritten notes that where chicken scratch compared to the neatness of the diagram.

"You have to make sure each symbol goes in the correct place or else a toy wooden horse could turn into a smelly pile of dog doo." His voice shocked her for a moment before his words set in. She chuckled and shook her head.

"My father used to read these books to me every day during home-school hours, I don't think his words ever clicked up here." She tapped her temple twice as she spoke," I guess I just was never supposed to be an alchemist." She shrugged and picked a random book from the stack and opened it to the first page she saw.

"Your dad was Louis Hagraven, the medical alchemist that was working on replacing missing organs with animal parts. It was a big controversy because some other medicine based alchemists said that was one step away from chimeras." Alphonse looked up at her from his book as he spoke.

"That sounds like dad." She stated and rubbed her neck," My mom was sick, her lungs where bad and he was attempting to find a way to keep her alive. What good that did them." she sucked in a shaky breath after she spoke, the sting of tears causing her to blink her eyes furiously.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He stated solemnly. the tears came quickly to her eyes then, flowing freely down her stinging cheeks. He was the first one out of everyone that day that said any condolences about her parents. She threw her arms around his metal helmet and shoulders and let the sobs rock her body instead of trying to hold them back.

"Th-thank you." She stuttered through her tears. He seemed stunned for a moment before wrapping his arms around her and patting her back gently. She allowed the gentle giant to soothe her for a moment before pulling away and wiping her eyes on Edward's shirt which she borrowed after her shower. She smiled at him awkwardly and sniffled.

"I uh, I needed that. You're the only one to even mention my parents passing in a sad way. I know the military has to remain professional, but it just felt like everyone was being heartless bastards." She shook her head to clear it and reached down to pick up the book she had dropped when she hugged him.

"You shouldn't let them get to you, Mustang's a real hard ass but he takes care of the people around him. If not for him I wouldn't be a state alchemist and would probably still be in Resembool." She turned to see Edward sitting up in his bed and rolling his metal arm around his shoulder socket. She wondered how he lived with a prosthetic, it seemed to her that it would be an awkward heavy thing hanging from his body, but he made it look weightless and graceful.

She stood and rubbed her arm as she thought about what he said. He managed to get this far in life with just him and his brother, perhaps one day she could find a way to be happy without her own family. her stomach grumbled, finally at its breaking point of hunger. She eyed the peanut butter covered strips of bread and frowned.

"you don't like peanut butter?" Alphonse asked her. She blushed as both brothers eyes rested on her, not used to being a part of the spotlight.

"Not really, it's too thick and sticky." she stated as she made her way to pick up the plate. Edward yanked it from her hand and tossed it in the garbage with a slight smirk. She looked between the two as chuckles seeped from Alphonse. Edward was strutting towards the phone on a wall nearby. She was confused as he dialed the numbers quickly and leaned against the wall. Alphonse simply shrugged and patted her shoulder.

"I hope you like noodles and meat sauce." He chuckled as he made his way past her to study another stack of book at the far wall of the room. She raised her eyebrow as her mouth hung slightly open in surprise at the sudden action she saw in the two boys.

"I am not against them." She said softly as Edward ordered food loudly over the phone. He shouted something about making sure milk wasn't on the menu as she sat back down at the table; the book Al was reading was still open on the page that had the scrawling writing and the diagram. She pulled the book closer, reading the diagram carefully then reading the notes written on the next page. The to handwriting's where so different yet so familiar to her. She gasped and about fell to the floor. The diagram was her mother's handwriting and the scrawling almost illegible notes where her fathers. She flipped the book to the first page and found her parents pen names: Scott and Laura Heathcross.

"This is one of my parent's notebooks." She gasped as she looked wildly around the room.

"What!?" Alphonse appeared at her side looking over her shoulder. Edward hung up the phone and rushed to join them at the table.

"What's going on here?" He asked with a hard look at his brother.

"Look, this is my parents fake names they picked to hide their secrets. They told me them once when we were having a family night. I thought it was just silly nicknames but they were actually using them for work." She looked down at the names in wonder as she spoke.

"That's impossible, we found that book in Central commands library." Ed stated as he scratched his head. Alphonse seemed full of nervous energy once again as he shifted between feet slowly and as quietly as he could.

"But my father was a state alchemist up until i was twelve. There's no telling how old these research notes are. My parents worked together for years before they married." She flipped through the pages and read the few side notes that her mother was responsible for writing. Each page looked like a complicated shopping list, but Emily knew how to really read it. She was shocked at what she discovered from her mother's words.

"They were trying to transform bear hearts into human; it says here that they had to dispose of a chimera that was accidentally created by a faulty circle." The two boys leaned in close as she read from the book carefully," Do you think that maybe they made a chimera that survived? That could be the killer." She rubbed her chin as she thought through what she had discovered.

"It's a possibility." Edward muttered as he leaned against her chair back. His braided pigtail tickled her head causing her to wave it away out of frustration. Al picked through the stack of books, looking through them for her parents fake names as she flipped through their journal looking for any other clue to what they had been working on. There was a silence in the apartment as each of them drifted into their own minds. The loud knocking that echoed through the apartment after twenty minutes interrupted their thoughts. Edward jumped into action, running towards the door and throwing it open to reveal a surprised looking delivery boy.

"Hi did someone order Brio's famous noodles and meat sauce?" The guy seemed nervous even though he stood a full head taller than Edward, who was writing a number on a sheet of paper and handing it to him.

"This is my state alchemist I.D. number and account number, take your payment from there." He stated as he yanked the bag from the delivery boys hand and shut the door," Dinner." He said through a smile as he sat the bag on the table in front of her.

"It smells delicious." She said as she sniffed the steam coming from the bag. her mouth watered at the smell of the spicy and sweet meat sauce that she could smell.

"Just wait until you taste it, Brio's is my favorite restaurant in all of Central. They are a big city dine in with a small town feel." He pulled out two white boxes as he spoke and placed one in front of her. She chuckled at his enthusiasm.

"Are you discussing food or making an ad for the restaurant?" She asked as she opened her box to be rewarded with a delicious looking plate of noodles and meat sauce. they were all topped with what looked like hand rolled miniature meatballs which caused her stomach to growl as soon as her eyes spotted them. She picked up her plastic covered fork and unwrapped it before twirling it in the noodles and pulling them to her mouth to take the first bite. It was delicious, the tangy sauce and spicy sausage-like meat mixed well with the smooth taste of the noodles.

"I guess I could always fall back on that if I decide that alchemy isn't for me." He chuckled through his half eaten dinner. She shook her head and took another bite of her food. Edward and Emily fell into a conversation on alchemical reactions and lost track of time. Soon the day turned into the deepest night and Emily couldn't hold open her eyes any longer.

"you should probably turn in, you've had a rough day." Ed said while pointing to the unused bed with his thumb.

"Thanks." she yawned as she stood and disposed of her empty to go plate and fork. She managed a slow walk to the bed and fell into it, hugging the pillow close to her as she closed her tired eyes. Her world faded to black as she slowly fell asleep.

In her dream there was a deep black void that seemed to ooze a sick looking slime, teeth formed at the edges and clamped shut on each other. The vision pulled away to reveal a massive stomach of a bald man. When she looked closer she noticed that it was the same man from before, Gluttony, who smiled at her in the odd face splitting in half way he had smiled before.

"Lust isn't here to tell me not to eat you little worm, and you look so tasty." His mouth grew larger and larger as he spoke until it looked like he would simply swallow her whole. She tried to scream and run away but the faster she kicked out with her legs the closer he got to her, and the greater he grew. She shuddered, holding her arms over her head and braced herself for the impact that was to come.

(End of chapter 3)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Emily sat up quickly in her bed, fresh sweat dripping down her face as her breathing slowly slowed from hyperventilating to something of a normal speed. She fell back into the sheets and sighed heavily as one of her thin wrists rested upon her forehead. It was the same dream, the same dream that had haunted her for the full six months she had lived in central. It was to the point that she expected it as she fell asleep at night yet it still gained the same reaction from her as she awoke. She lay there feeling defeated, not for the first time in the half a year she had been living in her uncles home, and wanted to cry. She wanted to but the tears would not come. After her parents death she couldn't even force herself to cry. Sitting up took a moment, it felt as if her body had simply given up as she forced herself into the simple position, but after she was there she could slump slightly over and click on the light that took up most of her nightstand.

The light that flooded the room revealed a large book on her nightstand with a rough leather cover. A copy of her father's Alchemical notes she had borrowed from her dear friend Alphonse not two weeks before. She ran her fingers across the rough leather surface and thought of her dear father for a moment before forcing herself up and out of the room. The floor was like ice on her bare feet as she made her way down the hall to her bathroom. The light was bright and harsh in this room causing her to squint as she shuffled towards the sink and turned on the stream of cold water. She splashed a hefty helping onto her cheeks and shook her head to relieve herself of the lingering dream. The wall clock was on five fifty causing her to groan as she read it.

"I'm up way too early." She muttered to herself before yawning. She had no intentions of going back to sleep with the dream so fresh in her mind, however her new living arrangements where lonely at best. She was all alone in a four bedroom house with nothing furnishing it but plain looking furniture and a few plaques from her uncle Alberts rewards. She found herself reading over one he achieved for valor. The words didn't quite sink in as her eyes scanned over them.

A knock on the door caused her to jump. The house had been so quiet that the soft knocking was like a parade drum, echoing through the house. She found herself shuffling towards the door just as another even louder knock boomed through the quiet rooms. She moved slowly towards the front room of the house, her hands shaking as the memory of her dream seeped fresh into the front of her mind. the knocking pounding in her ears like her own beating heart.

The light coming from the street lights outside cast long ghastly shadows across the nearly bare floor of her living room. She stuck to these shadows as she moved towards the door which she could see moving with each pound it received from the outside. She was close enough to touch the finely grained wood of its surface. Her fingers twitched as she slowly raised her right hand to reach towards the cool metal door knob, just as the last booming knock sent the door flying from its hinges like a piece of scrap paper in a hurricane. She was blown back against the far wall just by the force of it, shielding her eyes from the blinding flash of light that she knew meant an alchemy circle had been activated. Shards of the doorframe landed on her arms and legs as she shielded herself from the blast.

"Emily!" his voice had her whipping her head up and shielding her eyes from the glaring street lights now shining through the hole where her door used to be. Standing in the middle of the light was a tall form with glowing eyes and what appeared to be a bag slumped over its shoulder.

"Alphonse?" She shielded her eyes as she stood, bringing her now close friend into sharper focus. He had his brother slumped over his shoulder and a line of blood running down his chest plate staining the metal a dark crimson/brown as it dried. Her eyes grew wide as she watched a fresh stream run over the shiny metal armor," What happened to him?" she gasped as she rose to her feet quickly, slipping on chips of wood as she did so.

"I'm so sorry Emily, there was a truck and Envy and a metal lamp post." Alphonse stuttered as he moved Edward unceremoniously towards the couch and laid him out on it carefully. Emily followed closely behind the metal man as he performed these tasks and almost fainted when she noticed the large hole in Edward's lower stomach. Alphonse seeped with nervousness as he bounced from foot to foot behind her. She dropped to her knees and placed one hand on the warm flow of blood. He groaned and shifted below her hand causing it to slip over the hole. She jumped back landing on her butt on the cold tiles.

"Can, can you fix him?" Alphonse was looking down at her, his odd glowing eyes much too close in the semi darkness. She pulled herself back up and onto her knees next to the couch and looked closely at Edward's ever paling face.

"Why did you come to me?" She asked as she tried and failed to keep her voice steady. She was no doctor; she didn't understand what she was supposed to do.

"You have been studying your fathers notes, I-I thought that you could.." Alphonse drifted into silence and merely pointed at his brother.

"I'm no Alchemist Alphonse! Besides dad used animal parts as a substitute," She rubbed her sweat cover forehead with the back of her clean hand. It was too late to drive Edward to the hospital, and Alphonse wasn't going to be any help. She looked quickly around for anything that may be of some help, mentally checking off what she would need to patch him up.

"Alphonse, I need you to do some things for me as quickly as possible. I need you to go turn on my oven and set some knives inside it, then you need to gather some clean sheets from that closet in the front hall and a clean towel from the bathroom, I need my sewing kit from my room and a bottle of alcohol, along with the roll of gauze in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Can you do all that?" She turned to him talking quickly as she ran through her plan in her mind over and over.

"Y-yeah I think so." He stuttered as he rubbed his gloved hands together nervously.

"Then go!" She watched him jump and run from the room before letting a worried look cross her face. She closed her eyes for a moment in a silent prayer, She did not want to be the one that Edward died on, "it's so much blood." she practically whined the words as she listened to Al banging through her house.

"Is it that bad?" She jumped and looked into Edwards barely open golden eyes. He was looking at her with his mouth slightly open, a bubble of blood was at the corner of his lips and grew then shrunk with each breath he took.

"You're, You're going to be just fine Ed." She said softly, reaching out to brush back his bangs as he closed his eyes.

"Liar," He chuckled, sounding more like a pained animal crying than a human chuckling.

"He woke up?" She jumped and turned to see Al standing, with his arms full of her supplies, in the hallway. He seemed to try to become smaller as her eyes looked over him. She nodded slowly and tilted her head to the end table nearby her.

"place them over there and then i need you to go watch the knives, They need to be a glowing red before I can use them, and wrap them in table cloths before you bring them in here ok." He nodded and rushed to follow her commands. She waited until he was gone before she turned back to Ed. She reached for the bottle of rubbing alcohol and splashed some on her hands before grabbing one of the three sheets Al had brought her and lining her work area with it, blocking Edwards line of sight as she did so. She ripped the second of the sheets into strips and soaked a few in alcohol to wipe his wound clean. She winced as the now diluted stream of fresh blood ran down his pale skin. She moved onto folding the towel neatly and sliding it carefully under his side. She took the extra strips from the second sheet and wrapped her palms carefully in them. she opened her sewing kit and found a long needle, which she carefully bent into the best arc she could and drenched in Alcohol as well.

"It's not as bad as it looked." She told the unconscious Edward as she pressed beside his wound carefully. She prodded into it with her index finger and measured the best she could how deep it was. she pulled her digit out of him and frowned at the dark red sheen around it.

Al came in carrying four knives, each red hot and covered by the handles in thick cloths. He sat them down on the last sheet as she instructed and moved to stay out of the way. as she reached for the first one, She pressed the blade into his wound and winced at the sizzling sound and smell of cooking meat. she repeated this with the rest of the knives until his wound was cauterized fully. She poured the alcohol over a spool of thread and treaded it through the needle before turning to the gash that finally stopped bleeding. She carefully sewed the skin, knotting it every stitch to keep it closed and burned the thread when she finished the last knot. She wiped the now sealed wound with one of the cloths and sat back sighing.

"Will he be okay?" She turned to look at Al and shrugged. He literally shook with his pent up energy as he sat awkwardly on her uncle's dirt brown couch.

"I don't know for sure yet. Let's get him in Uncle Albert's room and we will take turns watching him, only time can tell now." She stood and stretched, popping her back and looking towards her ruined front door, "I think we should at least get him out of the front room, I don't want to be the house that attracts all the nosey people in the neighborhood." Alphonse simply nodded and moved to carefully lift his brother bridal style before turning to look down at her. She in turn tilted her head and led him through the house to her uncle's unused bedroom. She stood in the doorway as he gently laid his brother on the big bed and backed away.

"Maybe you should go tell, someone." She stated softly when she saw his large metal head lower. He turned to look at her, who in turn shrugged.

"Colonel Mustang will kill me, and then brother." Al stated as he rubbed his hands together again. she stepped up to him and patted his large shoulder comfortingly.

"I'm sure he will kill you faster if he finds out about this from someone else." she shrugged, saddened by the fact she couldn't think of something better to say to the sad giant. He looked down at her for a moment before looking away.

"I'll, fix your door, while I'm headed out." he shuffled past her and down the hall, she listened to his booming steps grow softer and softer as he traveled through the house.

She turned and pulled a rocking chair up to the bed and sat down, pulling a pillow to her chest before leaning forward to study his sweat covered face. She bit her thumb and tried to figure out if that was a good sign. She leaned in close to study his pigment when his eyes popped open. She froze, her nose millimeters from his own, and turned crimson red. He looked at her in shock at first but soon his features formed something closer to a smirk.

"That's something I never thought I would wake up to." He rasped softly. She pinched her lips together and sat back hard enough in the chair to set it rocking.

"I was just, checking your pigment, trying to see if you were getting your color back." She stated quickly without looking at him, it was the truth but she felt her face getting hotter as she spoke.

"Thanks," he said as he looked up at the white ceiling above them," I think you saved my life." she was thrown by his sudden statement and simply sat there staring at him with her mouth slightly open. He laughed and held his wound with a pained look on his face," What's wrong, never been thanked before?"

"I just wasn't expecting those words from you." She rubbed her neck and propped her feet on the metal frame of her uncles bed," You want to let me know what happened?" She asked.

"It's of no concern to you, trust me." He looked away from her as he spoke the words. She lowered her head sadly, When the Elric brothers didn't want to say something they never uttered the words.

(END OF CHAPTER 4)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Edward was still in the bed when Roy Mustang finally made his appearance. Emily had been reading one of her father's journals and fell asleep with her face pressed against the open pages. Her hand rested on the blankets just inches from Edwards own feverish digits. Roy looked upon the two sleeping teenagers and shook his head. Alphonse stood behind him glancing around the room, the sheets over his brothers body had a light pink stain forming over his wound causing Al to wonder what his brother had been doing to cause his wound to open.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Roy looked at the metal giant as he spoke; Al in turn jumped and looked around even more nervously.

"It's a long story." Alphonse watched his brothers face carefully, the sweat covering his forehead shone in the dim light making his blonde haired brother appear to be made of wax, his features seemed almost molded in the dim light.

"We have to get him to the hospital before he gets any worse, but all three of you have some explaining to do when he is up and moving." Roy looked upwards at the cobwebbed ceiling as he spoke, "If you can get past our little Emily here then get Edward and move him to the car." Al jumped at his command and scooped up his older brother as if he was a baby and made his way awkwardly around Roy to exit the room. When they were alone, Roy removed his jacket and laid it over the sleeping girls shoulders before turning on a heel and following the brothers out of the house.

Emily awoke with a start, dropping the heavy coat from her shoulders and onto the floor with a loud clank of metals on wood. The sound scared her enough to cause her to stop and look down at the now pool of blue wool and shiny metal for a moment before she remembered why she was in the old bedroom in the first place. She turned quickly to find an empty bed, with only a drying blood stain to show where Edward once lay. The few words Alphonse had told her ran through her mind, Envy's name was the loudest thought in her head, she knew that Envy was a Humunculi, and what a Humunculi was thanks to the few books she and Al had read while Edward slept in the Central library.

Her heart pounded as she searched her house for the short blonde, when each room turned up empty she felt the weight of the world rest upon her shoulders sending her slumping into the ground.

"What do I do.." She muttered as she bit onto her thumbnail. Alphonse would be mad if he knew she had lost his big brother, not to mention Colonel Mustang would be furious if the Full Metal Alchemist suddenly turned up missing. She paced back and forth in front of her phone, wondering if she should call someone, and who that someone should be exactly.

Al stood beside his brother as he lay in the hospital bed. Roy, jacketless, stood nearby talking with Hawkeye in hushed whispers. He knew full well what they were discussing. His lack of thought when he brought his brother to Emily's house, she did not know anything about alchemy and barely seemed to know anything about medical care when she was fixing Edwards side. He wondered vaguely what she was doing now, had she awoke to find them all gone or was she still asleep with her head resting on the old bed that she had him set Edward on. he stood then and stepped away from the hospital bed. Roy raised an eyebrow at him questioningly but he just waved off the look and ran from the room. The hallway was empty of nurses and doctors which made it easy for him to run through without worry. His large metal feet scraped the tile floor and made a horrid sound as he slid to a stop in front of the stairs. He bounded down them four at a time; the urgency to get to Emily grew as he thought over what had happened once again:

Edward had been ecstatic about some new finding he had from an unmarked Alchemy journal and had been loudly making his way down the street towards their shared apartment. Al had been following behind him with his nose in a book, diligently reading through some notes that had caught his eye. Neither heard the truck until its screeching wheels came to a stop in front of Al. From inside the cab came an odd laughter. Then the blinding lights where cut off as Envy and Gluttony emerged from the inside of the truck's cab. Edward had frowned at them and there where words shared between the short alchemist and the two Humunculi. Edward had clapped his hands together and formed his well know spear. Envy was who he went after with it, waving his spears tip so that the Humunculi had to jump back or risk his stomach being torn open with its sharp point. Gluttony had gone after Al, his cold beady eyes glinting in the darkness as he drew closer to him. He had been holding the fat little man off when the sound of screeching tires had filled the air once more. Envy had been on top of the hood with a sharp broken end of the spear pointing downward towards Edward. Al remembered thinking that maybe Lust was driving since those three seemed to always be together, then as he watched the pole slid into Edward's side like it was made of butter. Then the truck wheel was going over Edwards metal arm. The front bumper was slamming into his face and then he disappeared under it. The truck had stopped nearby the now frozen Alphonse and Gluttony jumped inside the bed. Shortly after it was gone, the street was empty of everything but his own metal body and his brothers bloodied mangled one.

He found himself outside of Emily's door as his memory came to an end. The sound of the trucks tires still played in his mind as he pounded on the door. She opened it after his third knock, her eyes where hollow and fresh tears still clung to her cheeks. She looked as if she had seen a ghost as those eyes landed on his metal face.

"Al." She gasped as her hand snapped up to cover her mouth. She closed her eyes and leaned on the door, allowing it to open fully to give him room to come in," I'm so sorry Al, he, he's gone." Another set of large tears rolled down her cheeks. He pulled her into the house and sat her on the couch which groaned with her weight. After shutting the door he turned to her once again.

"Shh," he cooed as he petted her head as gently as he possibly could," its okay Emily, Edward is fine, Roy came and we took him to the Command hospital. He's okay. You did a good job." She turned to him then, wiping her wet face with her sleeve as she did so.

"He, he's okay." She said softly. Al nodded with a soft pat on her shoulder. She smiled softly at this and laid her head back against the couch back. It looked like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders as her body slumped into the upholstery. He wondered vaguely just how long she had been stressing about Edward's disappearance alone in her home. He stood, holding his hand out to her without saying anything. She looked up at him then, looking confused and a bit worried as her sunken eyes gazed up at his metal face.

"Come on, we will go see him." He stated as he rubbed his helmet. She reached up to grasp his hand, using it to pull herself into a standing position. She wiped her face once again on her sleeves and nodded. Silently she followed him out of her house and down the long stretch of sidewalk leading towards the hospital. Both had a lot on their minds as they moved through the darkness.

(END OF CHAPTER 5)


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Edward was awake when they walked into the hospital room. His bright gold eyes lingered on Emily for a moment too long, making her look away. She had remembered to grab Roy's coat before they left and used that as an excuse not to look at the blonde in the hospital bed. She smiled politely and thanked the older man for covering her when he did not have a need to and then she moved on to speak to Hawkeye in a shushed voice. Mainly she asked how he was doing and if the doctors found anything wrong with her hasty first aid.

Alphonse, for his part, went directly to his brother's side and sat in the rolling stool that was the only chair around that could hold his massive body. He grabbed his brother's hand and squeezed ever so slightly to get the blondes attention, which was still focused on the brown haired silver eyed girl standing awkwardly in front of the two officials.

"How are you feeling?" Al asked in as much of a cooing voice as he could manage. Edward waved away his question with his good left arm and then hung that arm over his eyes.

"Winry is going to murder Me." he groaned as he moved his arm to look down upon his crushed automail one. Al nodded as solemnly as he could. The blonde automail mechanic would slaughter Ed and then fix his arm as she always did. Edward was a bit frightened of the skinny blonde girl who he only saw when he had to. She was their childhood friend but his poor short older brother saw her as a torturer. He glanced behind him at Emily, now standing awkwardly in the doorway, waving goodbye to Roy and Hawkeye as they make their way down the hallway towards the exit. She turned and her bright silver eyes met Al's glowing ones. She looked sad and worried and uncomfortable all at the same time, and would not look at Al for long before looking away.

"What's wrong with you? Geez you saved my skin and you act like you're the one who attacked me." They both jumped at Edward's voice. The blonde alchemist for his part was looking away from both of them and out the window beside his bed. Emily opened her mouth to speak but closed it without uttering a word. What she wanted to say was not something that her metallic friend needed to hear. In fact she did not want anyone but the short blonde to hear the words that where playing through her mind.

"I think I will go call Winry, may as well get it over with right?" Al stood as he spoke. She jumped wondering if he could hear her thoughts. He simply walked past her and closed the door, leaving her alone with Edward and the ticking of the medical monitor he was hooked to.

"You can stop looking so nervous now." He muttered after the door clicked closed. She moved to take the empty stool that Alphonse had occupied not long before. Awkwardly she placed her hands in her lap, not knowing what else to do with them. Her eyes locked on her interlocked fingers instead of his face, which was turned towards her expectantly.

"I could have killed you, I had no idea what i was doing." she bit her bottom lip after the words tumbled out. The memory of how scared she was as she patched him up came back to her causing her hands tremble.

"But, you didn't." His voice caused her to look up. He was smiling and lifting the blanket to show off his freshly wrapped side," You kept me alive long enough to get here. Your dad would have been proud of you." She found herself smiling at his words.

"Well, if you weren't as tough skinned as you are it could have been worse." She feebly joked. He chuckled and pulled himself into a sort of half sitting position so that his eyes where level with hers. She looked down, but back up again shortly after," Edward?" she asked softly.

"Yeah?" he asked as he settled into his large stack of pillows once again.

"You're a good alchemist and all, I was wondering if you might find the time to maybe teach me?" she stumbled over the words as she asked the question; her eyes found her hands once again. Her memory of her father preforming alchemy on patients at his clinic came it her mind. He was a doctor and an alchemist and a kind hearted man. She wanted to be like him and her mother instead of a scared little girl when faced with something like she was faced with recently. Edward was her wake up call; she couldn't just slide by on her uncle's salary without doing anything with her life. She had to stand up for something; she had to do something, anything to keep the memory of her dear parents alive.

"Are you sure you want to learn?" He asked in a dead serious tone. She nodded, still too far in her thoughts to speak to him. Al opened the door to see the two looking at each other from across the short distance that separated them. He made a coughing sound causing Emily to jump and turn in the stool to face him. She smiled and stood to make her way over to him, patting his metal arm with her right hand.

"I think I better go home, you and Edward need time alone." She said softly. Al nodded watching the early morning light that seeped through the window play across her face. She stepped past him after a moment and disappeared down the hallway. The soft pitter patter of her footsteps echoed as she made her way to the stairs and downward.

Emily lay across her bed hours later, watching the sunlight dance across the ceiling of her small room. Alchemy did interest her as it had since she was a child, but now it was something more. Alchemy could be a way to bring her closer to her parents. She sat up in her bed, looking down at the green journal on her nightstand. Her father's handwriting awaited her between the worn pages. She touched its smooth worn surface and allowed a small smile to grace her lips as a tear slid down her cheek. Memories of her father playing around with her in his office, showing her how to make the perfect transmutation circle as her mother looked on from the doorway filled her mind. The circle her father had showed her was one to make a wooden doll.

She looked down at her hand and wondered if she could do that simple circle without her father's help, wondered if she could even preform alchemy at all. These thoughts led her to finding a piece of chalk and to draw a circle in the floor of her bedroom. She filled it in with everything she could remember from the one her father constantly showed her. Finally after a long thirty minutes the circle looked complete to her. She let out a long breath and placed her hands on the outer part of the circle, opening herself up for the energies to flow through her body as her father had told her to. A bright flash of silver light filled the room for a moment before dimming down and making the small space seem darker than before. She had squeezed her eyes shut against the glare but now forced one open to look down nervously at what was between her open hands.

The thing was gruesome, a mass of charred bent wood that did not form any shape she had ever seen before. What she thought where the arms where sticking up from its disfigured head and then bending down to meld with its body. She batted it away in disgust and pulled her knees up to her chest as she leaned back against the frame of her bed. Something was wrong with her circle, or maybe it was herself that something was wrong with. She thought of how easily her father had performed his alchemical miracles when she was little. He has told her when she was young that the science of alchemy ran in her blood. She wondered now if he could have been wrong about that all together, obviously she couldn't even make a simple doll. The phone rang, cutting off her train of thought with its insistent droning tone. She pulled herself from the cold floor and made her way through the house to the front room and picked up the phone, placing its cold receiver to her ear.

"Hello." She said softly.

"Emily! It's your Uncle Al! I'm getting some leave time so I'm coming home!" A smile crossed her face at her uncle's enthusiasm. She leaned against the table beside the long couch and chuckled.

"Sounds great uncle, when should I expect you?" she asked.

"Tomorrow." was his happy reply. She found herself talking to him for about an hour more over nothing at all. When she finally hung up on him with a promise to cook him a home cooked meal when he came home it was already midday and the hot sun beat down on her from the front windows. She found her best boots and set out on a walk to the park nearby the hospital. It was a nice day and she could be close in case Al needed her for anything. The disfigured mass of charred wood under her bedside table was all but forgotten as she walked off into the bright sunny day.

(END OF CHAPTER 6)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Emily sat at the train station with a small silver bag clasped in her hands. Her uncle had a love for watches so as a welcome home gift she had purchased him one with his initials engraved on the back. It had been a long time since she had seen one of her family members, and although she still missed her parents dearly she thought it was nice to see her dear uncle again. Her fingers twisted around the string on the bag as the time slowly ticked by. She looked up at her two companions, Edward stood stoic with his automail arm in a sling and his good leg in a cast. White bandages covered his skin in odd patches and the bottom half of his stomach was wrapped tightly like a mummy. Alphonse was as blank as ever, being covered by his large suit of armor. She wondered when he ever took it off and just how tall he was to move so freely in the armor.

"So your uncle is a soldier?" Edward asked as he leaned against the bench where she sat. He did not look at her as he spoke. He hadn't really looked at her since she asked him to be her teacher. She looked down in embarrassment as she thought of her poor attempt at alchemy she had done after asking him, he would have his hands full if he ever started teaching her the science of alchemy.

"Yeah, he has been away fighting the rebels in the eastern desert." She said softly as she watched yet another train arrive. Her uncles train was delayed, a billboard in the office of the train station stated that it was due to rail malfunctions, so her wait had been extended from about ten minutes to well over two hours. The two brothers had stayed with her through this even though Winry, the over exuberant mechanic, wasn't scheduled to show up until later in the day.

She looked up as a train pulled in nearby, a hiss of steam blowed in her face as the engine died down. She watched with mild interest as the passengers unloaded, many bustling around each other just to get to where they were going, until she saw a tall man in a military uniform with spiky blackish brown hair and bright green eyes that where hidden behind a pair of wire rimmed glasses. He towered over many of the other passengers and easily made room for himself with his broad shoulders. She remembered riding on those shoulders as a little girl. And she also remembered the smile that now took over the man's face.

"Uncle Albert!" She exclaimed as she leapt from her seat to run into the man's waiting arms. He wrapped them around her with a hearty laugh and picked her up, easily twisting them both around in a circle right in the middle of the loading area.

"Hey squirt! miss me?" She chuckled at her old nickname and squeezed him tighter. His stubble along his chin scraped her shoulder, tickling her skin like it always use to.

"Of course i did who wouldn't miss the puppy of the family." She giggled and rubbed his head like he was an actual puppy. She forgot about her companions during her short family reunion. She jumped from his arms and held up the silver bag up to him with a broad smile," I got you something uncle Al." She stated happily as he reached for it. He opened the bag and pulled out the white paper that she had used to hide the gift inside and his face lit up like a light had suddenly shined down just on him.

"You remembered." He said as he pulled the watch from the bag and turned it over in his hands. She smiled as he read the engraved initials and slipped the watch onto his wrist. He stuck the bag into his pocket folded in half and rubbed her head playfully," Missed you squirt." He stated as he moved to grab his suitcase. She stood waiting on his return, and did not notice Edward behind her until he spoke.

"So that's your uncle huh?" She jumped and turned to the blonde Alchemist.

"Yeah, that's my dad's younger brother." She said with a shrug. Edward nodded standing stiffly beside her. She wondered why he was acting so strange, his normally joking personality had become hard and formal.

"You look a lot like him." She smiled up at Alphonse who had seemed to sense her unease o and came to her aid.

"Yeah I took after my dad a lot and they look alike." She chuckled uneasily and smiled as her uncle reappeared. The awkward air the Ed had caused all ceased when her uncles playful air mingled with their own. She introduced the boys to him and he joked with Alphonse about being the "new star" around. He offered to take the boys with them to lunch, which Edward respectfully denied. She soon found herself watching as the brothers walked away, leaving them standing in the middle of the train station. Albert took her by the shoulder and led her out and towards a line of yellow taxis waiting to pick up fares.

"Nice boys." He stated as they settled into the backseat of the cab. She shrugged, not really sure how she should respond, she didn't want her dear uncle to think that something was going on that wasn't.

"They are good friends of mine I met when I moved here." She said as she turned to look out of the window. The cab had pulled away from the curb and they were now passing by buildings a bit too quickly to look closely at any certain one," Edward is hopefully going to teach me alchemy since dad isn't.." She broke off without finishing her sentence, her throat was suddenly tight and she had to blink away tears, which surprised her, her sadness hadn't been this aggressive in weeks, perhaps it was due to the fact that her uncle was now sitting beside her, a living reminder of her father in almost every way.

The ride to Brios diner was a long quiet one. The tension in the car had started when she mentioned her father and had grown thick enough to cut with a knife. She should have known to stay away from the topic because he shared her pain. He had lost a brother and a sister in law. She was almost overly relieved to see the diners sign. The cab pulled to a stop and she couldn't get out quickly enough. Her uncle stayed inside for a moment, paying the driver no doubt.

"Ahh, i remember this place from when i was a kid." He stated as he stepped up beside her to gaze at the diner. She was taken aback by this, she had all but forgotten that her father was born and raised in central, in fact the house her uncle now owned was where they grew up. She looked up at him expecting to see a smile for the old memories but his face was blank and emotionless," Shall we eat?" He asked when he noticed her looking at him.

"Yeah." she said and followed him into the busy place. They had to wait for a seat but he assured her it was worth it. After about a half hour of waiting they were led to a table towards the back of the diner. He ordered a coffee and a toasted egg sandwich with cheese and ham. She ordered a cup of tea and a bowl of the sup of the day with a grilled cheese sandwich. As they waited for their orders an awkward silence fell between them. He pulled off his glasses and cleaned them slowly. She watched the others around the Diner as she played with a napkin. The dull murmur of the conversations around her filled her ears as she folded the napkin into a swan and then a butterfly. The woman server who brought their drinks commented on her creativity to which she just politely smiled. Her tea was steaming in the cup which she held in her hands tightly to warm them. Her uncle just downed his coffee and looked over at her as if he expected her to do the same with her own drink. She took a careful sip of the hot liquid and scalded her tongue right away.

"owch." she said under her breath as she sucked in air and let it out slowly. He raised an eyebrow and adjusted his glasses carefully. She scrunched her nose slightly and took a second sip from the cup. This sip tasted a bit funny and it caused her lips to feel odd. She pulled them in, tightening her mouth and then let them out again. After a third sip her whole mouth felt fuzzy and there was an odd taste in the back of her throat. She looked at her uncle who seemed fuzzy to her, in fact everything seemed to be getting fuzzy around her. Her eyelids became heavy and her head swam. Soon she couldn't hold her eyes open. Her head rested on the table as her world slowly went dark.

Ed looked out of the window of Roy's office as Hawkeye went over the list of casualties again. The boring job of filing the papers Roy had actually gotten around to filling out was driving him crazy. Alphonse did not seem to mind but he did have two working arms and no skin to get paper cuts. Hawkeyes droning on made him even more bored, his brain felt like it was melting.

"I'm so bored." he groaned as he laid his head on the table. Alphonse patted his back gently and nodded his head.

"Boys please be quiet, you are the ones who earned this reprimand by running off to the west without telling anyone or filling out a leave form." Hawkeye snapped quickly. She coughed to clear her throat and to the disappointment of an equally bored Roy Mustang, continued with her list," Hackles Tomnas, Hagraven Albert, Hall Wilson.."

"Wait, did you say Hagraven?" Edward shot up into a straighter sitting position with his eyes locked on the female officer. She looked back over her papers and nodded.

"Yes, Albert Hagraven death on the battlefield." she stated as she looked up," oh that must have been Emily's uncle, poor dear." She said after a moment of thought.

"That's impossible." He stated flatly.

"Are you saying our intelligence office is wrong Edward?" She asked in what could only be described as 'the mom voice'.

"He couldn't have died on the battlefield, we just saw him an hour ago, Emily met him at the train station." Alphonse said meekly as he held up his hands. Edward thought back to what had bothered him so much at the train station. Albert's eyes seemed too black and when the light hit them they looked like they were a dark purple color, plus the fact that he had worn one glove that did not quite cover a tattoo on his right hand and had left his left hand bare.

Edward shot up like a rocket and bounded out of the room. Leaving Hawkeye and Roy stunned and not slowing down for Alphonse who had followed behind the blonde torpedo. He had to get to Emily before it was too late, they had come for her once and now they had come for her again. Did they intend to use her as a sacrifice and try again?

(END OF CHAPTER 7)


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

The first thing that she remembered was the stench of rotting hay and manure. She could even taste the foul smell of it in the back of her throat as her mind came in to focus. She forced her heavy eyelids to part and was shocked by the bluish black fabric that met her eyes. It was close, so close that she had the urge to close them once again. However she fought back against this and focused on what it was. A line of fabric thick enough that she couldn't see through it was wound tightly around the upper half of her face. It had been tied carelessly at the back of her head, pulling the hair that had been trapped in the knot from her scalp painfully. She struggled to move her arms, which had been tied behind her at both the wrists and the elbows, to no avail. Her legs were bound by chains that rattled loudly whenever she shifted position to try to rid her left one of its cramping pain.

"Oh, so you're awake then." She turned her head quickly towards the sound of her uncle's voice. The sound of someone standing from a rolling office chair came from the same place as his voice, "I do apologize for the bindings but you've ran once before so you cannot be trusted now." He chuckled a bit, closer to her ear now, and pulled on the bindings at her arms.

"I never ran away from you." She squeaked in a scared voice. Another chuckle, a feminine one, came from her other side.

"Did you hear that Wrath? she never ran away from you! How sweet." Lust's voice purred from a few feet away from her. She gritted her teeth at the woman's voice and struggled harder against her bindings, feeling the ropes on her arms cut into her skin as she did so.

"Why?" a tear slipped out of her eye to be soaked up by the fabric they had used to blindfold her.

"You already know the answer to that." Her uncle's voice grew farther away as he spoke, and soon after the sound of metal grinding on metal rang out from the distance, "I already have my eyes set on the next one. You two just watch her and don't let her get away again."

"Yum." The sound was one that she recognized as Gluttony's voice. Cold fear grew in the pit of her stomach as she remembered the dream that had haunted her whenever she succumbed to sleep. She found herself leaning away from the sick slurping sound coming from where his voice had emitted.

"So boring." It was lust this time, in her sensual drawl that could cause men to flock to her like bees to a flower. She couldn't focus on their voices, if she did she would lose her mind to fear. She couldn't understand half of what they spoke about anyway, talks of some sort of sacrifice and finding the unawaken alchemists rolled around her ears like waves as the time ticked by. Hours melded into each other as her body grew stiff from being still. The conversations that her captors held fell away until all that was left to her was the foul smell of the place. She dared not think for fear of what her thoughts might plague her with. Her mind fought against her will, causing images of friends and loved ones to flash across her brain; her parents smiling faces where replaced by the last image she held of them, dead atop one another. Another set of tears where absorbed by the ever dampening cloth, the salt of them stung her cheeks as they attempted to absorb them back into her skin.

Roy Mustang considered himself a well-mannered man, but what the blonde boy before him had declared only a few days ago had his nerves twitching with emotions that a father would feel if his child had vanished. That is just what the girl, who had been their subject of conversation, had done. They had searched her home and come up empty. She had not returned after the boys had left her at the train station and the workers at Brios had claimed they had not seen her or her uncle at all the day she vanished. They had barely slept due to the brothers insisting that sleep was pointless until she was found. Now he was having to deal with another disappearance.

The missing boy was in his early teens, a student to an alchemist in town who insisted he had talent but lacked the ability to create anything with the simplest of circles. He was a red head with blue eyes and stood close to six feet in height. The old alchemist said he enjoyed visits to the park by himself after long days of studying, and could be found at the library any other time. At this point there was no connection to Emily in his disappearance, however Roy felt in his bones that it was related. It wasn't common for two people to turn up missing so close together and not end up being captured by the same person, or people, and he knew that cases like this weren't usually left to his office. In fact Emily hagraven's case was officially taken on by the police force in Central City, but he still helped the boys work it with the promise that the police will have the chance to look over any information they had found. So why was he now sitting in Al Hagraven's living room, listening to the others as the banged around in the room behind him?

"Look at this." Alphonse stated as he held out the strange mass of wood he had found under her bedside table, "There was a circle under a throw rug in her room. Apparently she tried to make something a failed."

"She's an Alchemist?" Roy found himself gasping as the wooden structure was placed in his hands.

"She's supposed to be. She asked me to teach her." Edward appeared in the living room doorway with his red clad arms crossed in front of his chest, "I thought she was just caught up in the moment when she asked me so I did not exactly answer her." His head fell forward in shame as he spoke. It was all his fault, if he had chosen to teach her she would have been with them that day, learning how to draw a proper circle instead of running off with a man they did not know.

"I had no idea she wanted to learn alchemy." Al stated as his metal feet scraped a gash in the wood of the floor when he shifted uncomfortably in place.

"It's not your fault Ed." Roy stated softly as he looked over the disheveled young man standing at his left, "She would have gone with him anyway; she thought he was her uncle." His words fell on deaf ears as the young alchemist turned and stomped back into the kitchen.

"Poor girl will never catch a break." The two that had remained in the living room jumped a bit and turned to look at the blonde woman at the window. She sighed softly and turned to face the foggy glass as she continued to speak, "She lost her parents and now she has been kidnapped. She must be scared, I don't know her well but she seemed like someone at the brink of darkness when I saw her last."

"That was at the hospital right?" Alphonse remembered taking her to see Ed before he had his automail fixed by their dear childhood friend Winry.

"No." she stated this flatly before turning to lock her eyes on the glowing pair in the armor, "I saw her just after that. She was at the library reading a few journals of her father's when I was there returning books for Mustang."

"What did you do?" Al asked her as he carefully sat on the floor so he would not break the furniture in the room.

"Nothing, she seemed into what she was reading and as I said I don't know her well. I left after turning in the books."

"Could you pick out what she was reading if you saw them again?" Roy asked as the thoughts in his mind clicked together, maybe there was a connection to the two in those books.

"I could," Was her answer.

"Then I need you to come with me. There may be more to these kidnappings than we know."

"Yes sir." She saluted him as he stood and turned to the sitting mass of metal that was Alphonse.

"Watch out for your brother okay? I think that he could be in trouble if my hunches are right." He stated in a fatherly tone.

"Yes sir." His voice was a high childlike voice of worry.

As the front door closed behind him Roy wondered if he could save them before they became casualties in the secret war that had been proclaimed the day Emily had ran away from the two Humunculi that had come for her the first time.

She let out a soft 'umph' sound as another body was thrown into her own. It was removed shortly after and the sounds of chains nearby told her it was being chained up as well. She could smell the metallic scent of blood coming from where the other had been seated and knew that whoever it was had a much worse time than she when they had been taken.

"So you got him by force?" lust cooed from nearby her, probably busy tying his arms as hers had been tied.

"Leave him alone!" she shouted in spite of herself. Shouting was not what she had intended to do, not wanting to draw their attention to herself either.

"We aren't going to hurt your little friend, yet." He head whipped around towards her uncle's voice.

"Ed." She found herself softly stating. This only brought laughter from around her causing her to lean away from the noise.

"Not yet." An unfamiliar voice called from behind her. Fear caused her body to go stiff, the voice was close to her head. Close enough for her to feel the warm breath on her scalp above the bindings of her blindfold.

"Please just leave us alone. Let us go. We won't tell anyone I swear." She pleaded the strangers voice as she struggled once more against the bindings that where now soaked with the blood of her arms.

"That will not be on the menu tonight." The voice said before sounds of someone moving behind her echoed into the distance. She though the room she was in must be vast for them to be able to move so far away from her. She was probably chained in the middle of it, along with the boy that she hoped she did not know. The others were still nearby her, she could hear the sick watery sound of Gluttony sucking on his own drool covered finger, and the tapping of Lusts high heel boot against the concrete of the floor.

"Hungry." Gluttony stated around the digit, causing his voice to sound distorted in the darkness that was her world now.

"You can't eat them yet." She was surprised to hear this coming from her uncle's voice a few feet in front of her.

"Where am I?" the voice from the boy beside her was confused and sleepy. She heard his chains rattle as he shifted quickly in his place, "Who are you?!" he demanded loudly causing her to wonder if he could see them.

"We are no one important to you. Or I should say, you are of no importance to us until we gather the others." Lust cooed once again from in front of him.

She felt her hair being tugged as her blindfold was roughly untied and a harsh brightness struck her eyes. The room was not that brightly lit, in fact it was dim she discovered as her eyes adjusted to the new light. Her head turned to see the beaten and bloody boy beside her. His hair was neatly cut like a few soldiers she had met in Central City and was a bright shade of red. His blue eyes where bloodshot and one was bruised and swollen to where it was only open enough that he could see through it. He was glaring around himself at the Humunculi who stood in random spots around them. His eye softened however when it landed on her own.

"Jericho?" she asked under her breath as she recognized the boy who she used to play with when their fathers worked together during their childhood.

"Emily?" he returned her question with a soft surprised voice. This encounter seemed to entertain the ones standing around them as a few of them chuckled lightly. She gritted her teeth in anger as she turned to shoot daggers at the one playing as her uncle.

"Oh now don't be angry, this is a happy occasion." He said in a sing song voice and patted her head, "Why don't you two get comfortable hmm?"

"What is Mr. Albert doing here?" Jericho asked as he leaned towards her. She found herself leaning his way as well until her shoulder rested on his own. The warmth of his body seeped into her own this gave her a momentary sense of relief before he was yanked away from her by Lust, causing her to fall harshly to the ground.

"No touching love birds, you sicken me." She stated as she glared down at the both of them. She saw him glare back at her as his face flushed with red. She could feel the painful throb growing where her head had hit the floor as she lay there, so close to her dear old friend and yet helpless to aid him. She could not even sit up due to how her arms where bound behind her.

"You are the ones who sicken me. Even dragging Emily's uncle into it. What are you after? My father's studies? They're gone. He got rid of them for good after I left home." He growled low as he spoke those words, she could see his hands squirming as he attempted to free himself of the binds. She wanted to reach out to him, to soothe his anger as she had when they were children, but the binds had cut and rubbed her arms so raw that she couldn't move them without the pain shooting through her arms, leaving her feeling weak and useless as she watched him confront the large breasted woman before him. She watched as lust lifted her arm and slapped him across his cheek causing him to jerk to one side by the force of it.

"You need to learn respect." She stated in a cold voice. He moved his jaw around for a second before spitting the accumulated blood and spit at her feet.

"You need to learn respect not me you slut." He shouted as he glared up at her face.

"You little shit!" her fingers elongated and one sharp tip of them slammed into his stomach, not at any vital points but in a place where it was the most painful without dealing a mortal wound. He cried out causing Emily to push herself towards him, ignoring the pain in her arms and now in her legs as the chained cuffs bit into her. He fell and landed on top of her side, his blood pooling out and staining her shirt as he did so.

"Don't let them get you worked up Lust, Envy would kill to have a go before you kill them." Her 'uncle' stated dryly.

"Envy would kill for anything." Lust huffed and stomped away quickly, "I am going to scout for the others, these two worms aren't worth my time." With that she was gone, slamming the large metal door after she left.

(End of Chapter 8)


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

The sun was setting as Alphonse Elric stood before the library where just a short while before his brother had stomped his way into. He could hear shouts and curses from inside that where clearly his brothers. The replies to his shouts where too faint for him to hear but he was sure that the librarian was terrified of Edward in that moment. Time ticked by like this until his brother exited the library to stand beside him with three books under his arm.

"Come on, let's go." He stated before turning away and heading towards Emily's home.

"Wait, you said that you would bring those to Mustang!" he exclaimed as he followed Edward down the hard packed pavement that made up the street.

"The hell with Mustang, He doesn't seem to care what happens to her! He's too into that red headed twerp that for all we know ran away from his crazy teacher." Edward kicked a lamp post as he passed it and clenched his fists to try to control his anger.

"He does care! He thinks they are connected somehow." Al had started off in a shout but it soon died away to a soft murmur. Edward shrugged and turned to face her house, which they had come upon so suddenly that it made Al's mind spin. He regained her thoughts as he watched his brothers red coat slip into the house quickly. He followed the short blonde silently, hanging his head a bit just to get through the door.

The house looked just about the same as it had the night he had busted through the front door, his near dead brother over one shoulder. He looked at the slightly darker stain that was located at the middle of her couch, his blood. Then at the large gashes in the floor, from multiple time of him shifting over the wooden boards with his metal feet. Her small dwelling had been marked by their presence, but he knew himself that the night that she had spent at their home had left no such evidence. She even took the trash out for them the next day, taking the takeout box away with it from her dinner. That was when he realized just how easily she had slipped in and out of their lives despite them marking hers forever.

"Brother?" he called out as he pulled himself from his own thoughts.

"I'm in here." Edward's voice was distant, emanating from her bedroom at the far end of the hall. He followed it and saw him standing before her unused bed and holding a fourth book in his free hand. He turned his bright golden eye on his metal brother causing Alphonse to visibly shiver at the sight of the hatred glowing from its depths.

"They've been here." He stated as he held up the open book, which held a piece of paper tapped to a page near the middle. The paper held a picture of Emily, bound and blindfolded while hunching forward apparently passed out in her forced kneeling position. Below the image was a set of words that made his blood run cold when he had found it on her bedside table:

If you want to see her you will come. Be seeing you Pipsqueak.

"Envy?" Al asked as he moved closer to study the image. It was dark around her but he could see clearly that the ground below her was made of concrete.

"That bastard has to have her." Edward ripped the paper from the book and looked around for evidence of the Humunculi being there. The window on the opposite side of her room from the door was still slightly open, and a scuff mark was left by a boot on the floor nearby it. He ran to it and placed his gloved hand at the edge of the muddy print, "They knew we were coming." He said under his breath, "They may have been following us all day. Could of even saw us coming from the library and ran ahead of us."

"Do you think we can pick up their trail?" Alphonse asked as he bent to study the print.

"I think it's their intention for me to follow it." He stated as he looked carefully at the picture once again, she did not look injured but that did not mean they hadn't hurt her since it was taken. He stood and headed out of her room mumbling "I'm coming alright." under his breath before shutting the door and closing his brother inside.

Emily had to of fallen to sleep at some point because the throbbing of her head caused her to come to her senses. She was lying against Jericho's shoulder and could feel the soft breathing that meant he was asleep as well. Someone patched him up at least, even if the job was even worse than the one she had done on Edward.

"You're up huh." She turned to lock her silver eye with his swollen blue one.

"I thought you were asleep." She stated matter of factly.

"Nah, they stuck you with a needle though, I think that's what made you pass out long enough for someone to take your picture. It was weird." He said as his forehead rubbed against the side of her own.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a quiet voice as a bright pink flush took over her cheeks.

"Calming you down like you did me when we were kids, I'm not really good at it." He smiled sadly and sat up a bit to look around while supporting her with his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she whispered as he reached towards his back pocket with the tips of his fingers. He shot her a quick look that said 'be quiet' and pulled the fabric of his jeans so that a small shiny object fell from the pocket. A split second after this he had the thing in his hand and was working it up between his fingers towards the ropes.

"Shh, my mom's ring, it's got a diamond on it and they say that diamonds will cut through anything." She wanted to giggle at the farfetched idea that her friend was attempting to work out. He was sliding the diamond against the tightly bound ropes quickly but the smooth top of the ring wasn't cutting anything any time soon.

"Someone's coming." She whispered causing him to hide the ring between his palms. Two more bodies were thrown beside him and then chained up to where they faced sort of away from her. She strained to see who they were but could not turn her head far enough to see. She winced as the pain rocked through her arms once again due to the strain she put on her bindings.

"They're out cold. I don't recognize them." Jericho stated without looking at her. She nodded to herself, glad that he did not say that there was a state alchemist among them. They had not got ahold of Edward or Roy. She shifted to rest her back against the one of her friend and sighed her discomfort.

"What are they planning?" she asked no one in particular.

"Actually, I know what they want to use us for." His voice had a shy undertone as he answered her rhetorical question.

"You do?"

"Yeah, they're pretty open about it actually, apparently their bodies that they are using are running out and they need seven 'eggs' to use as new bodies." He stated in a low whisper so as to not wake the other two.

"And by 'eggs' you mean us." She stated softly. He nodded and shrugged.

"Something about our alchemy not being fully awaken yet." He added without looking at her. She rested her head against the back of his neck and looked into the darkness above them. His head fell back to rest against her own as his fingertips brushed along the back of her knuckles. She jumped away from him at that point, a fresh blush on her cheeks.

"Uh, uh, uh, I don't think that's a good idea." She practically cried out the words as she hid her face from him. It took a long moment but she finally heard his soft apology in the darkness.

"I didn't mean to make you feel that way, I just, I don't know." He murmured after a long awkward silence.

"It's okay, I just don't want to think about that right now, not in this situation." She tilted her head to indicate the room around them. She felt him shift and turned to see him leaning forward with his back to her.

"I'm pretty stupid huh?" he stated rather than asked. She felt herself give a small smile, and had the urge to pat his shoulder to let him know it was okay. It was just so frustrating, being tied up and bound to the floor as if she were some sort of common criminal.

"Lookie here, halfway through hmm." She winced away from the foul breath that struck her nose, "Pride will be very well, proud, to see our little collection. Envys face came into view as she peeked her eyes open ever so slightly, "Nice to see you again little girl." She grimaced at his feminine face and gritted her teeth against his foul breath.

"I've never seen you before." She stated as she turned away from him.

"Oh yes you have." He smiled then, a sharp toothed smile that was far too broad for his face. It brought back memories of the night her parents where ripped to shreds in front of her eyes. She backed away and cried out in fear as she realized what he was.

"You! You where there that night! It was you!" she accused with boiling hatred in her veins.

The trail had gone dead just outside of Central City at a three way fork in the road. He spent hours out there studying the road for any sign of the homunculus who could have done this but any evidence was neatly covered by layers upon layers of tire tracks. He growled to himself as he paced back and forth in front of the sign. East or West, which way would those bastards take her? His fingers itched to wrap around Envys neck and squeeze until the homunculus' body stopped twitching. Alphonse was walking in a large circle in the grassy area nearby the sign that pointed towards their hometown. He would start at the sign and walk around to the wooded area nearby, then back to the sign. The repetitive motion was driving Edward to the point of insanity every time the large metal man walked past him.

"Can you stop that!" he shouted finally and growled low to himself as he sat back against the sign. His gloved fingers found his hair and pulled at it as he grew even more frustrated. Alphonse sat down next to him and scratched at the dirt with his gloves that made up his own fingers.

"Brother do you think that maybe it was a false lead?" He asked as he watched the small alchemist struggle with his own anger.

"Those bastards," Ed grumbled as he looked around, "they couldn't have just disappeared."

"They didn't." The brothers turned in unison to see Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye standing nearby them in front of Riza's car. Ed shot up onto his feet at the sight of them. His golden eyes blazed with mixed emotions at the image of the dark haired officer standing before him.

"Now Fullmetal, you could at least be happy to see us, we are on the same team here." Roy held up his hands as if to show the brothers that he was not a threat.

"Two more alchemical students have gone missing from in the town." Riza stated stiffly, "There is an obvious connection between them now. You said yourself that the young Ms. Hagraven wanted to learn alchemy."

"Yeah." Edward rubbed his upper arm as he spoke without really looking at any of them.

"So our observation was correct. They aren't taking fully realized alchemists, only those studying under well-known ones." Roy tapped his finger against his chin as he spoke.

"That can't be true though because she just asked me to teach her last week! I never answered her and no one knew about it but us. Plus they tried to get her the day she got to Central." Ed exclaimed, only lowering his voice when he realized he had said too much.

"They tried to capture her when she came to Central?" Hawkeye repeated him with something close to shock on her well-kept professional face.

"We uh, found her when she was running away from them." It was Alphonse, seeming to tremble as he spoke the words carefully.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Roy was not as professional as his subordinate as he snatched Edward off of his feet.

"Sir, I don't think that is important right now. We are looking in all the wrong places. If she wasn't a known alchemical student then why would they go after her?" Hawkeye shot Alphonse a quick glance, almost as if she were asking for his input.

"Her parents were well known Alchemical doctors." He stated after a moment of thought, "Maybe they thought she had trained under them."

"It's a possibility." Roy rubbed his chin as he paced back and forth in front of the car. His bots kicked up dust which flew through the air before settling again over a metallic looking surface. The gleam f it from the setting sun behind him caught Ed's eye and caused him to tilt his head and squint to see it better. Its outline was circular in the dirt and dust and it was hidden partially due to the front tire of the car.

"What is that?" he asked no one in particular as he bent down to inspect it. Wiping away the dirt and dust that covered it revealed a circular hatch with a handle built into a deep indent to the side of it. He could feel his brother's presence as he joined Ed near the thing on the ground.

"That's certainly not a man hole." Roy stated from his standing position nearby, "Riza!"

"Yes Sir!" she automatically slipped into a tight salute that would make any official in the military proud.

"Go get Armstrong and Hughes. Tell them to meet us here. It would not hurt to find Havoc as well." He ordered without looking up from the boy's discovery.

"Yes Sir." She slipped inside her car and expertly drove away, leaving them to clear away the section that the wheel had been hiding.

(End of Chapter 9)


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Sounds from beyond the large metal doors before her caused her to lift her head and squint her eyes against the near darkness. She could feel Jericho shift beside her and let out a low groan of displeasure. She had grown used to the cramps that seemed to twist about her body from the long period she had been left sitting there, without a chance f moving any of her limbs to relieve them.

"What's going on?" He whispered as the sounds of the other two prisoners stirring began to fill the air.

"I don't know. Sounds like they may have found the fifth ne they're looking for." She grumbled as she leaned back to touch him with her head. She did not know how long she had been down there with him in the near darkness, but just having the warmth of his body against the back of her neck made her feel better.

"I feel sorry for whoever they set their sights on." His fingers ran around her lower back in a mock petting motion. She had long given up fleeing his touch and simply gave in to feeling comforted by her old friend whenever she needed it. Right now, hearing the thundering footsteps of Gluttony echoing through the room, she needed it very much.

"Good Morning Little Tasties." Gluttony's foul smelling breath encircled her as he spoke from the doorway. She attempted to move further away from the doorway but was stopped short by the pain of the cuffs cutting into her raw ankles.

"You aren't allowed to eat us." Jericho's voice rang out above the din of her terrified prison mates.

"Not yet." The fat man like thing reminded him as he smirked and turned to open the door wider for his companions that carried two more unconscious bodies.

"Why are you doing this?" the one that had stated his name was Richard began to bawl like a child causing Emily and Jericho to look at each other with pained expressions. This boy was so awkward and whiny. He had told them how his family was one of the well t do families in Central City and how he knew that the fuhrer king Bradley would personally be looking over the team that was set to find him. He just had so much, pride within him that it made her sick.

"Maybe that's it." She whispered without meaning to.

"Maybe what's what?" Jericho asked softly as he turned to look at her. She shushed him as she watched the other two who were being carried past her carefully before breathing a sigh of relief. No Edward, not yet.

"I think I know why they are picking us, you said they were planning on using us as eggs right?" she asked the question quickly as the large door clicked shut loudly in front of them.

"Uh, yeah, or at least something like that." He returned her whisper as he turned his neck painfully to study the newcomers. One spot remained with empty chains on the cold concrete floor, and that was directly beside Emily, opposite him.

"Maybe they are taking advantage of our personality traits, seven sins seven spots. Richard defiantly has enough pride to go around." She tried to get into a more comfortable position on the stone like floor as she spoke.

"Hey keep your little opinions to yourself thank you." Richard demanded as he raised his chin defiantly.

"Dude let her talk. we are trying to have a conversation here." Jericho growled as he leaned towards her.

"Well I'm SO SORRY! I guess not everyone can be lucky enough to be captured with their girlfriend." Emily''s face grew very hot at his words and she found herself looking away from Jericho out of embarrassment.

"Are you sure that guy's trait ain't envy?" He asked with a chuckle as he turned to look at her, who was still looking down at her feet before herself.

"Haven't you heard? He was right above the exit and then they just left. The pipsqueak was having a full blown fit over not being able to look down here." She shushed them quickly and strained her ears to hear Envy's voice that echoed from the hallway beyond the door.

"I Heard that Pride sent them away, they didn't even suspect anything." It was her uncles voice this time followed by Lusts sultry laugh. She felt her heart sink low in her chest. Someone was looking for them and they had been so close to finding where they were being kept just to be sent away by a Homunculus the had never met before. Edward came to mind as she glanced at the empty space beside her, and the somewhat promise that he would be in the same situation as she was soon.

"It's okay Em, I'm sure they will come back for us." She smiled sadly at Jericho's words. Inside she felt herself breaking. Her stomach was empty and her heart as well. She knew that she had already given up hope for rescue though she had to hold up a strong front for her dear dear old friend, and the others as well.

"I'm starving." The one on the far side of Richard spoke up shortly after Jericho's words died out in the air. She thought of her own hunger that had grown from a dull ache to a hollow throbbing pain in her stomach.

"It won't be long now; we are going to make it I know. Someone's looking for us, we heard them talking about it." Jericho had become the main morale keeper for the small group of terrified teenagers. Emily hoped for his sake that his small amount of hope did not die out before they were rescued from this fate.

It was not possible. There was no way that the fuhrer could have been informed of their position and showed up right as they were about to uncover the secrets of the strange trap door in the middle of the southern exit road right? Edward thought over this as he lay in his bed, fresh out of the shower and freezing where the now cold metal touched his skin. He had stood under the rushing water for a long time, contemplating what that hole could be and where it could lead.

"She could have been right under our feet!" he shouted as he pulled at his golden bangs in frustration. No one answered his out-burst, no one was even around to hear it. Alphonse was busy helping Roy with a lead that Bradley had come up with out of the blue. There was just something odd about the eye patch wearing man that struck Ed to his core. He had not been around at all to hear of the investigation but just so happened to have an important lead for the very investigation that they were so close to finding the truth about themselves.

"I have to find her, I have to." He rolled over and hid his face in the pillow that was clutched tightly to him in his automail arm. She was just an innocent orphan, she wasn't even involved in terrible things like he and his brother had been after losing their mother. She had even helped him when he was near death, a favor he had yet to pay her back for. Now she could be somewhere alone, dead or dying, and he could do nothing that was helpful in any way. He may as well be that eleven year old boy he was before Winry had given him his first automail limbs. He was that useless!

"I have to find you, I just have to." Warm tears slipped down his cheeks as his world crashed down around him. Memories of the past mingled with thoughts of the future as he curled into himself. This wasn't like him; he wasn't being himself at all. He had to do something, go somewhere, find someone that could possibly be of help finding her!

He sat up quickly and smiled as the name of the one person that could help him flashed through his mind. It was so obvious that it was nearly hilarious. He began to chuckle as he hid his face in his flesh hand. Of course he would owe them a favor, and their favors don't come cheap. However it was the only way he could think of to find her. He rushed to his phone and began to dial the number to the hotel that he knew they would be at.

It was a long shot, but Ling Yao hadn't failed yet.

(End of chapter 10: special regards to justaislinn, who inspired me to take these next few chapters in a direction that I think will transform the story for the better.)


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

It had been days since the hunger in her stomach had turned into a deep feeling of nothingness. She could feel herself growing weaker as her body ate away at the nutrients of her muscles to even stay alive. She had no need to use the restroom because her body did not create waste anymore. She simply slumped forward where she lay, utterly defeated. Her hair tangled around her face in a matted mass that caused her to look savage and dangerous, though at this point she wouldn't be able to move very far even without her binds.

Beside her, Jericho was nearly at the same point as she, though she had been down in the hole much longer than he had and still seemed to want to get free. He smirked at the thought of his nickname for this place. The Hole seemed fitting due to it expanding to darkness all around with seemingly no ceiling and only one source of light emitting from a single bulbed lamp in the center of the almost circle their backs created. He found himself looking back at the lamp and judging the distance from himself to it. They were tightly formed together, it couldn't be more than two feet away from his back. It was constructed out of what appeared to be copper and aluminum with a steel base to keep it upright. The bulbs base was bared as well, with a large copper loop going up to a close arch above the glowing hunk of glass that emitted the dull light.

"What are you doing?" Emly's voice was weak and raspy as she asked him the question after the fourth time of him looking backwards. He smiled down at her frail form and let out a soft shushing sound.

"I have an idea." He whispered the words only after the gleam off of Lusts eye was hidden by the large door, "I am tired of awaiting rescue. We have to rescue ourselves." She squirmed and wiggled until his body jerked backwards.

"What are you going to do?" she asked after a fit of coughing.

"I'm gonna break that lamp and use the sharp edges to cut my rope bindings. Then I could draw a circle and-"

"Oh listen everyone Lover boy's got a plan to rescue all of us in the dark with a broken lamp." Richard's voice sounded strong and scornful.

"What is your problem dude?" Jericho exclaimed as his head whipped around to glare at the rich kids back.

"I am being realistic. Maybe if you didn't smart off to them every time they checked on us then we would have eaten by now." Richard huffed.

"It's his fault we haven't got no food?" He rolled his eyes at the fat kid's statement.

"It's her fault to!" she knew if Richard could have pointed specifically to her in that moment than he would have. For once she was thankful of the ropes binding their arms. She turned her head away from Jericho as he exchanged heated words with the spoiled brat that they had been stuck with.

"Jericho just-" she was shocked at how close he was as she turned her head to face him once again, causing their lips to just barely brush against each other as he turned towards her at the sound of her voice, "sorry!" she exclaimed as loudly as her weak state allowed and looked away once again.

The large hotel where the Xingese prince chose to stay was a very stylish and fancy building with a large dining room surrounded by grandeur statues and paintings. Edward Elric certainly did not belong in a place like this; he was sure of it as the other patrons glared at his clothing and over all appearance. Ling Yao, for his part, was dressed in the finest clothes that money could buy, with silk robes trimmed in golden thread and a brilliant white cotton shirt tied in place by a royal red ribbon, he looked like the hotel was made around him, a homage to his princely looks.

"So you need my help?" he asked as he summoned a waiter from nearby who was carrying a large bottle of wine that cost more than the brothers rent. Two glasses where filled to the rim with the red liquid before Ling turned to look at Ed again.

"Sadly you are the only one I can think of that is willing to go outside the law in order to get what you want." Ed grumbled as he watched the red liquid in his glass swirl around the rim before settling to a mirror like surface.

"I knew you would still appreciate my talents." He smiled at the young alchemist as he moved a sweet cake to his lips and took a small bite of the sweet fluffy mass.

"You're the only choice I have." The grumbling of Edwards vice was barely heard over the din around them. The prince seemed to relish in this as if Ed had claimed he were a god.

"You know what to say to make me swoon don't you Fullmetal?" he purred as she rested his chin on his folded hands.

"Are you going to help me?" Edward sighed and rested his forehead against his fingertips.

"Of course I will help! I love helping!" he exclaimed proudly.

"You love having people in your debt." Edward grumbled. The prince smiled and patted his head playfully.

"That to. So tell me, what or who am I looking for hmm?" at this question Edward pulled out a small picture of Emily and her family he had gotten out of the evidence locker on her parents murder case.

"This is Emily Hagraven." He stated as he pointed to where she stood in the center of the photograph, "I have reason to believe that the Homunculi took her and hid her somewhere in order to either get at me personally, or to get at her parents studies."

"Ah, so you want me to risk my life scurrying around their hidey holes hmm?" Ling took the picture and studied it carefully, "She's very plain isn't she. Too bad for whoever she falls for."

"Will you do it?" Ed asked after grinding his teeth together in frustration.

"Yeah, I'll do it. But you owe me a big one. We are talking about me risking my life here." He shrugged and laid back against the back of his chair.

"I know, it's worth it," Edward stated as he took the picture back after it was offered to him.

"Oh it is hmm?" Ling smiled and brought his wine glass to his lips as he sank into his thoughts. Ed turned away from him to slip the picture back into his back pocket.

"It's important that you find her because she's my, she's my student and I can't lose her and risk all the information I've given her falling in the wrong hands." He stated quickly to cover up the fact that he was over eager to see her again.

"So it's not important that she's alive as long as your information is kept away from the Homunculi?" he asked slyly.

"No, it's important that she remains alive, safe and sound, got it?" He sighed as he rested his forehead against his metal fingers, "The other missing ones too, if they are with her I need them safe and sound as well."

"I don't do search and rescue missions." The prince's usual bright cheery face was shrouded in a dark frown as he looked down at the small blonde before him.

"No, I don't mean rescue them. As long as you can tell me where they are I can rescue them myself." Edward's metal hand connected with the wood of the table with a loud bang as he stated his plan.

"So we have a deal?" Ling held his hand out as his eyebrow raised at Edward's outburst.

"Yes, we have a deal. I think I will regret this soon." Ed grumbled as he took the prince's hand in his own and gave it a firm shake. Ling chuckled and laid back once again in his chair.

Lust stood outside the door to the sacrificial room and crossed her arms under her large breasts. The brats had not uttered a word for so long that she thought they were close to death in there. Pride had specifically told them that they were not to feed the prisoners, which cause Gluttony to moan and groan due to his hunger and dislike for bony things. She flicked a stray hair off of her shoulder as wrath approached her. He was still dressed in that girl's uncle's skin and looked every bit the stern officer as he drew nearer.

"They should be close to useable. The time is drawing near." He stated as he came to a stop before her.

"They were arguing a while ago about something. Two of the boys were yelling at each other. The girl hasn't made a peep for a day or so as far as I can tell." She frowned at the thought of being stuck in such a meek body; she would have to change that after the ritual.

"She more than likely is starving and is too weak to do anything. She was in there three days alone, and that was before she woke up." He mumbled softly as he leaned into the partially open door to look in on their soon to be new bodies.

"Great I get a weakling." Lust huffed as she flipped her hair over one shoulder, "Can you get any more sexist than that?" He chuckled and shrugged at her statement.

"Not my problem." He stated as his eyes locked on Jericho, his future shell, causing him to smile to himself, "Mine seems fairly strong still. He may just survive the ritual yet." He added as he turned and walked away from her and down the hallway.

Lan Fan slipped back into her hiding place amongst the shadows as the tall figure of a man passed by. She had followed the same aura trail as before and once again found the one called Lust. The woman was taller than Lan Fan by nearly a foot and was well endowed with breasts and hips that where accented by the clothes that she wore. Just the sight of her reminded the young body guard of their last meeting, when she and Ling Yao where still just after the Philosophers Stone. The woman had been ruthless and cunning, nearly killing Lan Fan as she managed to escape with her prince and her life. She had sworn that the next time they met she would destroy the Homunculus that haunted her dreams.

"Just find where the Homunculi are hiding and return to me with the information. Do not confront them and do not stick around too long." Her prince's words rang in her ears as she ever so carefully made her way silently upwards along the large pipe she had hidden in. They were underground, deep underground. Deeper than the sewers which she had to climb under to get to her hiding spot and which she was now clambering into with a relived sigh. She pulled out a map of the sewer system and marked an x where the unmarked man hole was located. Her mission was completed. She had found the Homunculi which the blonde was positive had his little friend and had found a way for them to easily sneak in for a rescue, however she heard the conversation that had went on between the two and could never un-hear it.

"I should tell my prince." She thought softly to herself as she stealthily ran to a metal ladder and began to ascend it.

"So she was below out feet the whole time?" Alphonse was sitting in the floor next to the bed that held Ling Yao who was busily drinking from a wine bottle and smiling triumphantly. Edward stood by his brother, holding the sewer map up to the light to be able to see it more clearly. Lan Fan had not said a word since she and Ling had showed up on the brother's doorstep and was now standing by the window, watching carefully for anyone who may have followed them.

"I knew that they would take them somewhere underground. It's like their trade mark or something." Edward mumbled more to himself than to anyone else as he compared the sewer map to the map of the city.

"Just like rats or roaches, they will scurry into their dark little holes to hide away from the eye where they feel safe." Ling stated out of nowhere.

"That almost makes sense." Alphonse added his opinion causing Ling to smile and shrug.

"I almost make sense a lot." He stated proudly as he turned his eyes to the metal man with a child's voice.

"Did you hear anything at all? What they might be planning or how many victims they have?" As Edward asked the question Lan Fan shook her head almost automatically. If her prince did not think they needed to know than they did not need to know. She looked at her leader then, paying close attention to the drunk act he was putting on, for it was just that, an act. He had little to no alcohol in the bottle he was drinking from, and only hoped to stay sober in case they let on what they had planned to do with his information. She was not sure what he was planning or if it was her place to wonder. He was her prince that she would protect with her life if need be, so keeping a secret from associates of his was no big deal.

"No, we just saw them down there and got the hell out." Ling piped up before she could say anything. She nodded her agreement without uttering a word. Alphonse watched as Edward eyed her carefully before returning to studying his map. The moment that his eyes had locked on hers Alphonse had saw a glint of recognition in them. Edward knew something that the others were not telling them.

"I'm going out." He grumbled as he shoved past the two guests and moved towards the front door.

"Wait brother." Alphonse grabbed his metal shoulder and turned him around to face his glowing eyes.

"What Al?" Ed glared up at him, clearly angry about his brother stopping his important plans. His right hand clutched the map tightly in the fist that it formed. His eyebrows where shaking as well as the corner of his lips. He knew that these small signs meant his brother was stressed and antsy. He wanted to go right then and there and save whomever he could from the Homunculi, no not just whomever he could, her. He couldn't wait to run to Emily's aid and to hell with the guys who had come up missing. To Alphonse it all seemed like the perfect trap for Ed.

"Ed just wait, we will go get Mustang and miss Hawkeye and the others and we will figure something out with the information we've been given." Al stuttered this out quickly as he looked around him nervously.

"You do that." Ed growled as he brushed his brothers hand away easily, "I for one am going to take action against them for once and do something." He made a soft 'tch' sound and turned towards the door once again, "I'll be back with Emily, while you're out doing nothing tell Mrs. Hugues that we want a welcome home dinner for her." With that he was gone, leaving just the door slamming in Al's face.

She was moving, up and down in a rhythmic pattern that had to signify being carried or walking. She opened her eyes slightly to see a metal grate floor below her face becoming closer and farther away as her capture took one step then another. She was being carried by the Homunculi that looked like her uncle, and was slung over his shoulder to where the bone of his shoulder cut painfully into her ribcage. She could see the Homunculi known as Envy behind her, carrying Jericho over his shoulder in much the same way as she was being carried over wraths.

"I don't understand why we have to move them, Lust saw just one little girl, big deal lets feed her to Gluttony." Envy growled from behind wrath.

"I like that idea." She could hear Gluttony sucking on the thumb of his free hand as he followed behind Envy. All she could see of Jericho was his limp slightly swaying feet that where still bound by shackles. She focused on her arms and found they were still quite bound by feeling the harsh rope scrape across her raw skin with every step her captor took. She was gagged now, with a sour tasting cloth bundled up in her mouth and tied in place by an oily feeling rag. This terrified her more than the thought of being moved. If they felt that they had to gag the group of prisoners then they must be going somewhere nearby civilization. Perhaps they were getting ready to do the ritual that she was supposed to be a sacrifice for. She wiggled against her bindings causing her captor to clutch her tighter with his arm.

"Never thought the girl would be the first one awake after that gas," She felt the rumble of his chest as he spoke, "I thought she would have gone ahead and died already." The annoyed sound that escaped his throat caused cold dread to fill her body.

"She's Lusts remember?" Envy grumbled from behind her.

"Who cares? Lust could use someone better." She could not believe the harsh words she was hearing from her uncle's voice.

"Well that's true." Lusts voice came from beyond the hallway to her right. She turned her head as they passed by the area where it had come from and saw the woman glaring menacingly at her. Lusts hair was sagging and seemed washed out, the same could be true for under her eyes and other body parts that usually where perky and alluring. She wanted to say something like 'you don't look so good.' In a snobby tone, but the gag made that impossible.

Edward found himself in an empty cellar like room under the sewers. Though there had been no sign of the Homunculi, he recognized the floor covered in chains from the photo that Envy had left for him to find. He clutched it to his chest as he stood in the doorway looking in on the now empty room. She had been there, perhaps only mere moments before he arrived. They had to have known he was coming and took her away. Somehow he felt like the sneaky prince was to blame for his missed opportunity. He kicked a chain on the floor as he crossed over to the middle of the room, and looked down as a strange sight caught his eye. All the chains had locks at the ends of them; each and every set of chains that lined the circle did, except one that proudly displayed a pair of large metal cuffs on the other end of the lock.

"They haven't gotten all one, two, three, four, five, six, seven; they haven't gotten all seven captives yet. What are they planning on doing with them?" he sighed and squatted sown where he had stood.

"I thought she would have gone ahead and died already." Huh? He turned towards the faint sound of voices and strained his ears to listen.

"She's Lust's remember?"

"Who cares? Lust could use someone better."

"Well that's true." After hearing the faint female voice he jumped up and ran out of the room. They were still in the tunnels; he still had a chance to see her again, to save her! He ran with no fear of being heard. Even if they did hear him coming it would be too late for them. They would see no mercy from him on this day. He would make sure to eradicate the Homunculi even if he had to die trying. The tunnels narrowed as he ran; the sounds from the group ahead of him grew louder and louder, his hope growing with each octave, until they cut out completely as if they were never there to begin with.

He stopped short as the sounds around him suddenly blended into an almost deafening silence. It was impossible; the tunnels where brick and concrete sound should have been bouncing off of every surface around him, amplifying it a thousand times over instead of cutting it out completely.

"Where did you go Emily?" he asked the darkness as he ran his fingers along the wall, looking for any mark or indention that would give away their hidden exit. About ten feet from where he began his search for the door, he found the smallest hint of Alchemy usage along the right wall. Taking a deep breath, he placed his palms together and willed the door to open itself as the blinding white light lit up the tunnel. When he placed his hands against the wall it gave way like rice paper in the rain. He was astonished to see another tunnel lined with dim lamps hanging from the ceiling leading off into the darkness, and even more surprised when this tunnel led to a set of wooden stairs that seemed to go up forever.

(End of Chapter 11: Big rescue scene in next chapter!)


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

The trap door opened up like a hungry mouth and she was offered to the maw, being flung through it to land on the harsh wooden floor. Her shoulder was rammed into a metal loop which caused a surge of burning pain to erupt from the connection spot and spread down her arm and back. she tried to shift away from it only to feel warm blood rush down her back from the deep gash that the loop cut into her with its sharpened edge. She cried out around the gag as the face that she used to associate with her uncle slowly moved upward from the hole. She watched as he pulled himself from the hole and turned to receive Jericho's unconscious body which was then thrown beside her to land on its stomach. She allowed her body to fall towards him, cutting her shoulder the rest of the way open, and attempted to flip him over with her head.

"Stop wasting your energy." Envy's voice called out before she was roughly pushed back against the sharp metal loop. She cried out once again as it cut into her side, just below her ribcage. She watched through tear filled eyes as one after another her five companion prisoners were thrown around her and the latch to the hidden trap door was locked. She was moved against the wall, as well as the five boys, so that the door could be covered by a large dark green carpet.

"We need to get ahold of Pride." Lust grumbled from beside the door leading out of the room and into another, "He should find another place for the ritual since the center of Central City is out." She was talking to Envy who was sitting on the floor just within her view through the open door. Emily felt cold air waft down her back from below and turned to see a small window was cracked open and a few flowers and grass where poking through. Her fingertips began to search for the edges of the window to no avail, she was just too far away to reach it with her limited movement and was growing weaker and weaker with each attempt until she was breathing heavily and leaning against Jericho's still sleeping form for support. She could feel her energy slipping away from her as the edges of her vision began to blur into blackness.

It took close to an hour for Edward to figure out what the lock on the other side of the wooden door was made of, however after finding out exactly what type of rust was leaking through a bit of minor alchemy he managed to melt the components that formed the lock until the metal liquid slipped through the cracks in the wood to be absorbed in the steps below him. The door swung up instead of down so he knew that he would have to move it just enough to hear what was going on above him. He shifted to sit on the second step and rested his feet on the fourth before placing one shoulder against the door and pushed upwards just enough to feel it shift and then stopped. Soft murmurs filled the small space that he inhabited, no words loud enough for him to understand as the ones above him as they carried on a distant conversation. He lifted the door with his shoulder a bit more only to see a thick green canvas like carpet filling the crack between the door and the frame built into the floor boards.

"The boys aren't waking up are they? She looks about out of it again too." He ground his teeth at Envy's words and clutched his hand tightly in a fist as he bit his lip to attempt to stop his growl from escaping.

"Of course she's out of it. She's about dead after all. I want a new sacrifice." Lusts voice was closer as her footsteps moved overhead, "Hey, are you planning on death yet?" he heard her squat down presumably in front of Emily. Some sort of growling grunting sound echoed down to him, it was very muffled and he assumed that she had been gagged.

"Lust, mind yourself. Pride just called, he is on his way." The sound of the person who he had thought was her uncle's voice surrounded him causing him to fill with anger and hatred. He could hear others walking around and something hitting the ground with a loud thump.

"No wonder she's about out of it, look at all that blood." Envy's voice filled his hiding spot.

"Can I eat her now? Lust wants another so she's useless."

"No." The others said in unison. Edward did not know if he was thankful for this or even more angry at how they would allow her to suffer.

Emily was tired, too tired to fight back against their words. She felt like her body weighed more and more as time went on, making it difficult to even shift position. She felt her consciousness slipping in and out and heard strange creaking's as her captors moved to the next room once again. A soft glow from under the green carpet in front of her face caught her eye she fought back against the darkness that had invaded the corners of her vision and focused on the carpet, even as her captors had another go at her for their own entertainment. She alone saw it lift a few centimeters, then a few more as the trapdoor below it moved upwards. She watched it lower once again only to raise upwards as the Homunculi moved to the next room. She watched the carpet so carefully that she did not notice Jericho shaking himself awake beside her.

Jericho's arm moved to brush along hers as he shifted causing a shockwave of pain to rock through her body. She tried to lean away only to fall against his arm harder, white hot pain covered her arm causing her eyes to burn with the need for tears that she could not produce. She bit down on the gag that was now slick with her own saliva, and choked on the foul liquid that squirted out into the back of her mouth. Jericho seemed to notice her distress because he rested his head against her own and gently rubbed her temple with his forehead while he said something around his own gag that sounded like the question 'are you ok?' To this she nodded and nudged him back as she swallowed down the vile liquid that she had gaged on a moment before.

The sounds of footsteps had gone into the room beside the one he was hiding under, and a loud bang was heard as the door was slammed shut behind them. He hears a groan followed by the sound of muffled retching and what sounded like someone asking a question but that too was muffled beyond recognition. He ground his teeth as he listened for any other sounds of people moving around above his head but heard nothing. It was the best time to get in, the only time he would probably succeed in sneaking past the creatures in human form that he loathed so much.

He pushed up slowly, pausing each time it made the slightest sound, until the green carpets edge fell into the hole he had opened. He grabbed this and pushed his body carefully upwards, belly crawling across the floor until he was free of the hole. He slowly lowered the door back into place and returned the carpet to how it had been t the best of his knowledge. He had done all of this without looking about himself, too focused on his work and on remaining undetected by those in the next room that he did not think to search for who may be in the room with him.

As he stood he heard a muffled grunt that sounded a bit like someone trying to say his name. It was soft though, and weak sounding. His head turned quickly to see six forms lying against each other in the shadows along the edge of the room. He squinted but in the dying light he could make out nothing at all aside from the mass and the six distinct heads protruding from it.

"Emily?" he asked softly as he studied the heads. One shifted slightly to the left as he spoke her name and a soft muffled sound came from where it was. He knew that from his position they could see him clearly so of course she knew it was him. However he could not help his next few words slipping free on their own, "It's me, Ed." Immediately he felt dumb. The body that he assumed was Emily shifted slightly as if uncomfortable. He moved slowly across the room so that he would not creak any floorboards, fining his way over to her to squat down before her slumped form.

Her eyes where sunken in and her hair was a tangled mess, but it was undoubtedly Emily. He reached to touch her but drew back at the harsh glare from the boy beside her. Only after this did he notice the deep gashes and rough raw spots along her arms and legs. Her Bindings where so covered n blood that it almost seemed like they were a part of her wounds themselves. His heart pulled painfully in his chest as he gently touched one rope only to see her wince away in pain.

"Emily." He whispered as he touched her cheek. She looked up at him with half lidded distant eyes, unable to speak due to the nasty looking rag that was tied about her mouth. He clinched his fists before turning to the far door as the sounds of laughter erupted from behind it.

"Don't worry. I'm here to free you all so you won't have to be here much longer." He whispered as he stood and turned towards the door. Her soft murmuring reply caused him to snarl in order to hold back his anger towards the Homunculi. Her silver eyes grew a bit wider at this sight causing him to shake his head fervently.

"No, Em i-" He shook his head and looked down to steady himself. Then slowly and carefully he undid the knot at the base of her neck that held her gag firmly in place and watched as a balled up mass of fabric slipped from her open mouth. She coughed as fresh air coursed through her throat causing him to cover her mouth quickly with his hand and grimace as a pained look crossed her face. When he finally removed his hand she sucked in a slow breath and let it out just as slowly. Her eyes shifted towards the boy beside her suddenly and she opened her lips to rasp out his name.

"J-Jericho." She said the name so softly that Edward almost did not hear it. The boy that had been glaring at him this whole time turned his eyes on her, Edward saw them immediately soften as they landed upon her face, "E-Edward, please undo him as well as the others." She stammered around the words, testing her tongue on the sweet tasting air.

"Emily, we don't have time we have to get out of here." Edward whispered.

"It would be easier if you freed us of our bindings first." She returned in her own harsh whisper. He could not argue and thus a few moments later all of the conscious prisoners where unbound and Edward was holding the trapdoor open for them to lower the still unconscious ones down. It was slow work as they attempted not to make a sound. Emily attempted to help Edward lift Richards sleeping form only to cry out in pain as her wounds along her back and arm ripped open once more with the strain she was putting on her body. She clamped her good hand quickly over her mouth but the damage had already been done. Her scream was heard easily in the next room and was made all the more obvious by the sound of clattering and scraping chairs. Edward quickly pushed the sleeping boy down the hole with his metal arm and turned to the door. Emily standing behind him began to shake from both nervousness and exhaustion.

Her world was shaking as her vision blurred in and out. The only image that held steady was that of Edwards back as he stood protectively in front of her. The loud banging sounds and muffled voices from the other room where growing louder. She watched as he clapped his hands together quickly and pressed them to the ground. A large wall of rock and wood emerged to cover the door.

"Emily." She turned towards the voice only to lose her balance and fall painfully into Jericho's chest. She felt him lift her bridal style and hold her tightly yet gently to his chest.

"Hey short stuff, I'm taking Emily to safety so do your stuff." Jericho stated before he turned and jumped down the hole to head down the stairs.

"Who the hell are you calling SHORT!" Edward shouted after them. All that Emily remembered after that was Jericho's Chest shaking slightly as he chuckled while he carried her down the stairs and towards the spot marked on the map that Edward had given Emily before untying everyone. After this she gave in to the darkness that had been trying to capture her mind the whole time.

Edward took in a deep breath after the trap door slammed shut behind them, leaving him alone to defend the room and their escape against the Homunculi who were slamming against his barrier attempting to get in.

"I thought you said they couldn't get untied!" he heard envy shouting from beyond the now thick wall.

"I thought you said their alchemical talents weren't awakened yet!" Lust's voice was loud and grew even louder just before three long sharp talons shot through the barrier he had created. They retracted allowing fresh light to waft into the room through the holes that they had created.

"And I thought you idiots would have guessed already that I was on to you." Edward smirked as he shot the comment back at them through the blockage between them.

"Is that the Pipsqueak? I've been hoping he would show up!" Envy's voice called out after a long moment of dead silence. Edward ground his teeth and growled in anger as he clapped his hands together and slammed one onto a metal pipe beside him, pulling it away and creating a long spear as he did so. He aimed and flung the spear through the large hole in the center of the ones that Lust had created. He could not see but he could clearly hear the exclamation from Envy as it slammed into his leg.

The spear was yanked out and tossed aside as Envy growled low in his throat. Moments later the wound was completely healed and untraceable to the human eye. He grumbled as his form began to shift around him. Slowly he melded into a long thin black snake and slipped himself into one of the holes, sliding easily through to the other side only to return to his humanoid form before the ever reddening Ed.

"Miss me?" he asked as he spread his arms wide and smirked.

"Why the hell would I miss you?" Edward growled as he clapped his hands together and ran one down his metal arm. A long sharp point was formed above his fist as he jumped and swung his arm downwards towards the Homunculus' head. It did not meet its target as Envy simply shifted out of the way and danced around the angered alchemist.

"Come on short stuff you aren't going to make this boring for me are you?" Envy sneered.

"Don't Call Me Short Enough To Hide Under An Ant!" Edward exclaimed as he jumped to the side and swung his bladed arm towards the Homunculus once more. This went on and on, with one attacking only for the other to dodge and attack in return just for the first to dodge that attack. The cycle continued in what seemed like a never ending loop as Lust slashed at the barrier with her long sword like talons that had grown from her nails. It fell away into a pile of rubble as Wrath slammed into the wall after lust caused it to look very much like Swiss cheese.

Edward jumped away from Envy as the other three rushed to join him where he stood in the center of the room. The four grouped together and looked upon him with menacing smiles upon their faces. He knew that he was outnumbered and he was already growing tired from his fight with Envy. He mentally ticked off everything in the room that he could use as a weapon against the four of them. Killing them off was not an option, he knew from personal experience that a Homunculus could regrow literally any part of their body as long as their personal philosopher stones where unscathed and still useable.

"Pushed in to a corner like a rat, boy are you in trouble." His eyes trailed over to Lust as she chuckled and moved her hair over her shoulder. She seemed worn down already, washed out and withered compared to the men around her.

"It looks like you're the one who's in trouble. Miss a beauty session recently?" Edward sneered as he clapped his hands together behind his back and touched the largest pipe behind him, forming it into a cannon with three giant cannon balls laid out on top of it. It had an automatic loader that formed under the cannon balls and loaded the first one inside as he stepped out of the way. The ball fell inside of the cannon and a loud whirling sound echoed through the room before it was shot out ahead of a blinding white flash. The cannon ball itself slammed into Lust's stomach and sent her flying backward a half a second before the force behind the blinding light sent her companions flying through the air to slam through the wall after her. He used this distraction to give him time to fling the trap door open and hop down onto the first stair as the second ball fell into place in the cannon. He gave one last smug smirk in the direction of the fallen Homunculi who were pulling themselves up before shutting the trap door just as the second cannon ball fired out of the barrel of the cannon.

Emily awoke slowly, fighting against the heaviness of sleep on her body as she forced her eyelids apart ever so slightly to see a blinding white light that caused her to close them once again. The sharp smell of disinfectant and the sickly sweet smell of liquid medicine penetrated her nostrils causing her to scrunch her nose against the smell.

"Emily?" she felt a warm hand on her own and forced her eyes open once again as she turned her head to look at the bandaged wrist and fingers that seemed to cling onto her own for dear life. She followed the arm that was wrapped in thick white gauze and looked upon the worried face of her childhood friend.

"Jericho?" after she rasped his name she was caught up in a coughing fit, which he moved to pat her lower back gently as she struggled through it.

"Hey, are you feeling alright?" he asked as she lay back, against the large pile of pillows that he had pushed up behind her, until she was in a half sitting position.

"My head's still a bit fuzzy." She managed to murmur as she reached up to touch her forehead slowly.

"Not surprising. The doctors said that the chemical in the gas they gave us was unlike any they had ever seen, they were surprised that we weren't dead." He chuckled and gently touched her cheek with his fingertips, "I'm glad you are alright." He stated as he leaned forward to rest his head against her own, "I was so worried that I ran you straight to the hospital and left the others to the large guy in armor that was waiting for us in the sewers." He stated with his eyes closed.

"Alphonse is here?" she stated and moved to lean forward, at the same instant he shifted his head slightly and his lips where pressed firmly into her own. She sat there, shocked still as his fingers found their way to her jaw to hold her face as he kissed her.

"I've been wanting to do that for so long." He stated as her face grew warmer and redder. He opened his bright blue eyes to stare into her silver ones and smiled slowly, "I'm so sorry but I'm just so happy that I was captured right now." He kissed her lips, quickly this time and leaned back to sit in the chair by her bed once again.

"Jericho I-" her eyes shifted to the doorway where a flash of gold slid just out of sight. Her mouth hung slightly open as she puzzled over the strange flash of color.

"You what?" her eyes slid to look upon his face once again and she saw the longing in his eyes that made her think that perhaps he could have been the shell for greed.

"I-" the image of Edwards face flashed across her mind causing her to stop suddenly and look away from him, "I don't think that I feel the same way-"

"I don't care about that! I can make you see how I feel about you. Please just give me a chance, Em, I've loved you since we were children." His eyes pleaded with her own as he stood to grab both her hands. She could not look at those bright eyes for very long before she had to look away from their pleading depths.

"O-okay." She murmured without looking up at him. He in turn wrapped her in a tight embrace that caused her to cry out from the multiple wounds over her body.

"I'm so sorry." He exclaimed before pressing his lips into hers once again, "I love you Emily Hagraven, I will figure out a way to make you love me as well I promise, then we could be happy again just like before." He said this quickly before standing up and moving towards the doorway, "I'll be back with some food, the doctor said your being fed through the i.v's but I bet that you would love some tomato soup, it was always your favorite." He seemed to float on air as he made his way out of the door and out of sight.

She lay back on the pillows with a tired sigh, her body was still weak and ached everywhere especially the areas that the i.v's where stuck in to connect her to the many machines around her bed. Her head was spinning and her fingertips were going numb, her entire situation was very uncomfortable. As she thought this a flash of light off of metal caught her eye and she turned to see her armored friend standing in the doorway.

"Alphonse." She smiled at him as she struggled to sit back up without hurting herself or pulling out any i.v's.

"H-hey! Emily, I was just checking in on you, you know, making sure you were healing up alright." She chuckled at his nervous words and motioned towards the chair that Jericho had so recently vacated.

"Thanks Al. why don't you have a seat? I feel like it's been ages since I saw you last." She gave him the warmest smile she could as he moved to fill the seat with his girth.

"So how are you feeling? Edward said you were in pretty rough shape when he found you but-" he let out a soft ooph sound as a hollow gong rang out from his breast plate, "Sorry, but you must be really tough to survive what you've been through."

"Really? I don't think I'm tough at all." She looked down at her bandaged interlocking fingers and gave a soft sigh, "Honestly if your brother hadn't shown up I don't know what I would of done. I think I was knocking on deaths door right before he appeared." She turned back to see Alphonse squirming uncomfortably.

"I didn't know you thought that highly of brother." He said around awkward sounds that he tried to suppress.

"Yes, your brother Is great. I'm lucky to know both of you though." She tilted her head as she watched his awkward wiggling's, "Are you okay Alphonse? Is your armor too hot because you could take it off."

"No! No I'm fine." He held up one hand as if to stop her train of thoughts in its tracks, "I just, I have to go to the bathroom, yeah. Be right back okay." He clambered out of the room sounding much heavier than he had before with each step.

"Odd." She stated as she watched him disappear around the edge of the doorway. She could still hear his loud footfalls as he made his way down the hallway, the sound died off slowly into nothing as je made his way down what she presumed where stairs by the sound of the echo. She lay back once again and stared up at the ceiling in a daze. She had thought everything would go back to normal once she saw Edward emerge from the trapdoor. That had been the only thing on her mind when she saw his golden braid flashing as he worked. She had for the first time in a long while, a small piece of hope forming in her heart. That hope had been crushed in the last fifteen minutes by first Jericho and now Alphonse. No one was acting the same as before and that caused her to worry about how her life would be once she was free of the hospital.

"Oh, where are you when I need you Ed?" she groaned softly as she closed her eyes against the bright light above her head.

Alphonse stopped in an alley alongside the hospital and opened up his breastplate to allow the small blonde to clamber out and onto the ground. Ed straightened himself and swatted dust off of his coat before turning to look up at the rows of windows above them as he wondered which one belonged to her room.

"Are you happy now?" Alphonse crossed his arms after latching himself closed once again. Edwards face was downcast as he turned towards his brother and leaned his back against the rough brick wall of the hospital behind him.

"No." he stated with a soft heartbreaking sigh, "She may think that I am great but she decided that the fool of a red head was a good choice for a boyfriend." He mumbled without realizing what he was saying out loud.

"Who cares if she's dating someone. You were going to see if she still wanted you as a teacher right?" Alphonse gave him an expression that was as close as he could manage to menacing. He had been convinced to let his brother hid in him with the promise that all he wanted was to see if she still wanted to learn alchemy, so that he could awaken her alchemical skills and thus deplete her as a target.

"Relationships will get in the way of training. I can't teach her anything if she can't draw a circle for some guy hanging off of her arm." He grumbled before turning and walking away, leaving his brother there dumbstruck by how angry he was over something so trivial.

Jericho stood in the line for her tomato soup at the cafeteria of the hospital. He knew that she preferred homemade soup like her mother had made them all those time but this was the best he could do. He thought about how happy he would make her once he learned to cook, and about how long he would have to wait to propose to her. His father would be proud of him, he did always say that his son needed to marry the Hagravens daughter and give him a grandchild that could perform medical alchemy the world has never seen before. He smiled as he thought this over, tapping his chin rhythmically as he did so.

"I'll have to call and tell him the good news tonight." He thought out loud, "Won't he be surprised to hear his dream has come true."

"Hey kid your holding up the line." He was shaken out of his thoughts by a gruff voice that belonged to an old woman who was wrapped in knitted scarves and wore a blue patient pair of scrubs like the kind he and Emily wore.

"Oh, sorry about that I was lost in my own thoughts." He stated as he moved forward and ordered Emily's soup.

"That can be dangerous." The woman smiled as he shifted position. The shirt of her scrubs raised up just enough to reveal what looked like a tattoo of a dragon eating its own tail, forming a circle which held in its middle two triangles, once facing up and one facing down.

(End of chapter 12: phew! It took a long time to write this chapter because I had too many ideas going at one time and it was hard to organize them all in an order that made sense. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I am hoping that my next few will be a bit shorter so I can post them for my loyal readers faster. However I seldom know when to stop when I get into writing so no promises. I am sorry for the long wait though and will try very hard in the future to put out a chapter a day at least. Worst case scenario it will be one chapter within 48 hours.)


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

~Three Months Later~

The sun was setting in the distance as the small group crested the top of the large hill just outside the walls of Central City. The group consisted of a now healthy and growing ever stronger Emily, a sour looking Edward, a grumbling Alphonse, and an energetic Jericho. Emily had invited the brothers along on a picnic to celebrate her leaving the hospital, Jericho had invited himself along just like he had decided on his own that they were dating. Edward still grumbled to himself any time he spotted the red head around Emily.

"This is the spot." She smiled and laid out the large checkered blanket over the soft grass. Jericho rushed to help her straighten it out as the brothers looked on, the smaller of the two seething with anger. Emily for her part seemed oblivious to the one sided struggle between the two as she busied herself with the picnic foods.

"The view is great from here." Alphonse stated as he moved a bit closer to Edward.

"That's why I picked this spot." Emily replied with a smile as she pulled out her container of tea that Mrs. Hughes had made for her.

"It would be a lot better with less people." Jericho grumbled as his gaze landed on the brothers to his left.

"Couldn't agree more." Edward mumbled through his full mouth.

"Brother you shouldn't eat so quickly!" Al seemed nervous while sitting between the two seething males. Emily saw this as it played out and began to chuckle to herself. She sighed in content and looked over the field of flowers that rested down the hill from where they sat.

"My mom used to bring me here to play when I was little." She said softly to no one in particular.

"Whoa really?" Alphonse responded to her words with shock and awe lacing his voice.

"Yes, whenever I got a good mark in school or finished my chores really early she would take me here by train." As she spoke she motioned to the train station in the distance as she spoke, a soft smile crossing her lips as she remembered the picnic lunches that her mother used to pack for them on those days. She could almost taste the homemade pickles that her mother would bring just for those days to put on their sandwiches.

"Sounds like you were very loved." Jericho had turned away from the glaring Ed to join in on the conversation that his girlfriend and the Armored guy where having.

"Well of course I was; it was my mother bringing me here after all." She stated as she took a sip of the sweet lemony tea she had poured into her cup.

"Obviously," was Ed's short reply, she frowned at this before shrugging and looking out at the flowers once again.

They continued to eat in silence as the sun drifted lazily through the sky. Emily was the last one to decide that she was finished after nibbling a sandwich into nothingness. The boys had each moved further down the hill, having an alchemical showdown of sorts that she had watched from her perch above them. She smiled as she shifted to rest her crossed arms on her knees and her chin on her arms. Thoughts of how it would be if they were her family entered her mind as she watched Ed produce a spear and throw it towards Jericho who quickly drew a circle that caused the ground around him to create a wall. For someone who couldn't form a circle properly a few months before, Jericho picked up the basics quickly from his new tutor, Roy Mustang. Alphonse stood between them suddenly, one large gloved hand extended towards each of them. The match was at a pause as the two caught their breath.

"I wonder why he doesn't have to use circles." She mumbled to herself as she chewed her thumbnail. A shadow fell over her at that moment, causing her to jump a bit in surprise. She turned her head slowly to see Riza Hawkeye standing behind her.

"I see, Mustang wanted me to see how his training was going. However, if he can go toe to toe with Fullmetal he must be doing fine." The older woman had a gentle smile that seemed out of place amongst her stern features.

"Ed's going easy on him." She stated without thinking.

"Oh? Why do you say that? Shouldn't you be supporting your boyfriend instead of your teacher?" Another smile, this one more sinister played across her lips. Emily blushed and hid her face behind her hand quickly.

"He's not my teacher." She stated through her hand as her eyes slowly closed.

"I assumed that he had accepted your request since all he ever talks about is what he wants to teach you." Hawkeye squatted down beside her to get a better view of the young girl, "After all you do come from a long line of excellent State Alchemist." Emily's hand lowered slowly and she returned to how she was sitting before once again.

"He hasn't said a word to me." She sighed softly after she spoke.

"Strange." With that the older woman was gone from her side as if she were never there at all.

The night air was crisp and stung her skin where her clothes did not cover like icicles. Emily wrapped her arms tightly about herself as she shivered and sneezed against the chill wind that blew past her face. They had just dropped off a tuckered out and worn Jericho at his home, and now the brothers where walking her back to the house she had inherited from her uncle upon his death. She grumbled as she rubbed her nose on her kerchief.

"Are you cold?" Edward asked as he looked sideways at her shivering form. Before she could answer the warm red fabric of his coat was draped over her shoulders. She pulled it close to herself to protect against the wind and was surprised as his scent filled her nose, it was sweet and at the same time metallic.

"Aren't you my knight in shining automail." She smiled as she eyed his automial right arm. The scars that connected to it and stretched over his chest and collarbone caused her to frown as a pang of guilt rocketed through her. Her eyes moved up to his face and she was surprised to see him smiling.

"I guess you could say I am, ever since we met huh?" his smile faded when he saw the far away sad look in her eyes. The memory of their first meeting finally surfaced in his mind and his face fell at the surge of emotion that rocked through his chest.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." He stopped walking causing first her, then Alphonse to follow suit.

"Brother what-"

"Alphonse please go home. I would like to talk to your brother." Emily cut him off before his hollow voice could even fill the space between them.

"Emily?" She turned to him then and the glowing orbs that made up his eyes saw hers glistening and glaring with a resolve that he didn't recognize in her, "I'll see you at home brother." He said softly and turned to head the opposite direction from her home.

"Emily I," before Edward could finish his though her index finger was pressed against his lips. The warmth of it caused him to flush a light red.

"Just walk me home then we can talk." She stated flatly as she looked down to hide her face with her head. The finger on his lips shook gently before it was removed quickly. She took his metal hand in her own and pulled him quickly down the street towards her home. The very sight of this action made him wonder why he had chosen to walk on her left side.

(End of chapter 13)


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

The house was dark as Edward stepped inside. He felt her brush past him and his coat being replaced on his own shoulders before the door shut behind him and the lights above his head flickered to life. Emily stood in front of him with her arms crossed and a determined frown on her face.

"Emily are you okay? Look, I didn't mean to say that before. I'm sorry." His eyes widened as her hands slammed against the walls on either side of his head. His golden eyes met her determined silver ones as her arms shook by his cheeks.

"Why won't you give me an answer!" she asked a little too loudly as her lips quivered with held back anger.

"What?" Edward thought back quickly, wondering if she had asked him a question earlier that day.

"Don't ask what! I know it was a long time ago and that you were still recovering but I properly asked you and everything. Hawkeye even told me you have been talking about it. Why won't you just start teaching me already?" tears sprang to her eyes as she bit her lip to stop any other sounds from escaping. Ed ground his teeth and clenched his fists as she practically shouted at him with tears in her eyes, "I overlooked you bringing up my parents death and you acting badly towards my childhood friend so why can't you at least tell me no?!" Her arms fell to her sides as her head dropped forward, "If you can't stand being around me long enough to teach me a little alchemy then at least give me a proper rejection. It's the least you can do."

He moved quickly, his arms wrapping around her shoulders as his body moved forward. He intended to stop and attempt to comfort her but the force of his actions sent them crashing to the floor, her shoulder was painfully pinned in the junction of his automail elbow as they hit the floor causing her to cry out in pain.

"Emily I'm sorry!" he shouted as he looked down at her pained face.

"Why?" she whimpered as she hid her tear filled eyes with her fists. He sighed at his own stupidity before reaching out to move one hand away from her eye so that she could see him as he spoke.

"Emily, listen to me. I never intended to hurt you in any way, in fact I had full intentions to train you. Then you vanished and came back with a boyfriend and things got complicated. I tried to go along with it because it's you and that's all that mattered." Her eyes widened as he spoke, he was so close that his bangs brushed her forehead and his face was so stern, his eyes so determined as he spoke.

"Edward I,"

"Just shut up for a minute I'm not done." He shouted causing her to cringe away, "You ask me why but you're the one who should answer a few questions. Why do you insist on it being me who trains you? Why are you still dating the guy that you can't think of as closer than just a childhood friend? Why won't you even look at me as more than just a teacher?" his shoulders shook as he leaned closer to her. Her eyes traveled from his own down to his chin, lasting a bit too long on the bottom lip he had clenched in his teeth.

"Edward I didn't," she frowned as she thought about her words carefully, "Why do you care about Jericho and me anyway?" he looked away from her, choosing instead to stare at the design on her ancient rug.

"I thought we were close. Then you go ahead and fall for someone else." He mumbled softly. She furrowed her brow and clenched her fist against the rough braiding of the rug under her.

"Ed I, remember when I patched you up that time after you were brought here by Al?" She couldn't look him in the eye as she spoke, "I was terrified that I couldn't do it, I was scared we would lose you and it would be my fault. So when I managed to actually close the wound I was happy. Then when you were asleep and I was checking on you and you woke up I was so happy just to see your eyes again. I just wanted to hold on and never let," she stopped her long drawn out confession as she felt his warm flesh hand find hers. Cool steel digits wrapped carefully around her chin and her face was pulled forward and a pair of warm lips connected with hers. Her eyes pulled into two wide saucers, as his own closed. She struggled with herself as the feeling of his body heat transferred to her through this small connection alone.

"No!" she shouted as she pushed him away he fell back to land sitting and staring at her wide eyed. Bright red stains covered his cheeks as he backed away slowly.

"Emily." His mouth hung open as the back of her hand raised to cover her lips. Her eyes shone in the light as they began to water.

"Why now?" she shouted as warm tears streaked down her cheeks. He stood then and turned towards the door as he lifted his coat from where it fell on the ground and hung it over his arm.

"I really am sorry Emily. I shouldn't have done that." Though what she heard was a calm and collected voice, what she did not see mattered. A scowl of self-hatred and heart ache across the small blondes face. She felt like her world was shattering around her as he began to walk towards the door.

"Edward wait!" She jumped up and reached out to his back. He turned then and she ended up touching the part of his chest where metal met flesh. The comparison or lack thereof shocked her still. Her fingers traced the line that connected him to his prosthetic almost as if she where touching a piece of fragile art.

"What are you doing?" she was shaken out of her fascination by his voice and looked up quickly to see his face very close to her own. His lips still glistened, moist from the kiss.

"I didn't mean to," she jumped back holding her hands tightly together before her. Her eyes locked onto his scuff mark covered boots as her face warmed considerably. The sound of fabric rustling caused her to look upwards as she though he may be putting on his coat to leave.

What she saw was a flash of metal on tanned skin, separated by a line of stark white scars that made up his upper body. Toned muscles where hidden under a layer of flesh that shone in the light of the living room. His abs where sharply cut and well managed, as she looked further down she noticed his hips held a v shape that led into his dark black pants. His soft cough caused her to jump and look back at his face quickly.

"Pay attention." He pointed to his chest with his thumb, right in the center of his chest and right where the scar touched his tanned skin, "I did this to myself. I live with this, with my shame, right out in the open. Al has to live with my shame to, that brings a larger burden on me but I hold that up as well. I have to, this is my pinnace for what I did. So, don't ever say sorry for something like that. Ok?" She clutched her fist to her own chest and nodded in response.

"Good." He stated as he slid his shirt back over his body, hiding what her eyes had devoured from her sight.

"But," she began after reaching out and grabbing the hem of his shirt in her right hand. He stood still and looked down at her in confusion, "You say you wear your shame out in the open, for things you can't undo right?" he nodded as his brow furrowed slightly. She touched her lips with her left hands fingers and glared up at him, "then you owe me for the kiss. You owe me so become my teacher or I will never forgive you!"

"What? But I,"

"You heard me. Either become my teacher or never have anything to do with me again because if you aren't my teacher I'll never forgive you for kissing me like that." She puffed out her cheek angrily after she spoke. He stepped back with a shocked look on his face for a moment before a small smile formed on his lips.

"Well then, if I teach you could I kiss you some more?" he leaned close to her, close enough to see the growing blush on her cheeks.

"But I thought," she stepped back slightly to escape the sudden shift in power.

"That's my deal, if you want to learn my way of alchemy you have to do things my way." She ground her teeth for a moment as she fought back a blush, then let out a soft sigh and smiled.

"I guess if that's how it has to be, but,"

"Don't worry we can keep it between us. Your little boyfriend doesn't have to know," his eyes where sad even if his voice was cocky.

"Wait!" she called as he moved towards the door and turned the handle.

"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot, your 'dear childhood friend.'" He looked at her with a smile on his lips, "right?"

"Y-yeah." She looked down as she spoke softly.

"I gotta go or Al will worry. You know how he is." He gave her one more gentle smile before stepping outside and holding the door open, "By the way training starts when I wake up tomorrow so you better be at my house and ready by that time."

"Yes sir!" she said with an awkward salute. He chuckled under his breath and shut the door, leaving her standing in the living room alone.

"What the hell was that?" she asked herself out loud as she touched her lips once again.

Outside Edward smiled and pumped his fist in to the air before clearing his throat and heading home with a large grin on his face.

(End of Chapter 14)


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

"What do you mean you can't see me today? What could be so important that you skip our date that I have been planning all week!?" Jericho's voice cried out from the speaker on the phone. Emily stood in the hallway to her home with a toothbrush hanging from her lips and one eye on the clock that hung on the wall across from her.

"I told you I have an alchemy lesson today and I can't be late. You know how Edward gets when I'm late. I really don't want to draw plain circles all day again." She groaned as she spit into a cone shaped paper cup.

"Why don't you just train with Mr. Mustang with me? We could be together all the time!" he exclaimed causing her to pull the phone away from her ear.

"I already told you this last week! I asked Edward to become my teacher because he doesn't specialize in any one particular side of alchemy, Mustang focuses on fire, I want to learn all I can so Edward is my best bet." She sighed as she tossed her cup in the awaiting trash can. The same conversation; She had the same conversation with him every single day, give or take a few points here or there, but it always came back to him asking her to leave Edwards tutelage.

"Mustang can let you use his State alchemist connections to read in the military library, there you can learn all kinds of stuff."

"Edward is a State Alchemist to." She sighed rubbing her forehead.

"Come on you seriously want to learn from the puny wimp?" he whined.

"He isn't puny goodbye."

"Wait I lo-" his farewell was cut off as she slammed the receiver into its holder. Lately Jericho had become more and more clingy as her lessons with Edward increased, insisting on calling her before she left every day and having a call from her when she returned every night. It made her weary just thinking about how many hours of sleep she would lose talking to him after her alchemy lessons.

"Geez I'm gonna be late if I eat. Dummy." She grumbled as she slid on her shoes and headed out of the front door. For the past month she had been training under Edward, and paying him for it once a week with a kiss. She touched her lips as she thought of this. Today was her pay up day and that meant that Alphonse would eventually disappear on an errand that Edward came up with spur of the moment. She didn't dislike this deal but it made her feel sick to her stomach whenever she saw Jericho smiling happily the next time they met. She clutched her empty stomach with one hand and frowned as she turned on the Elric's street. Their apartment wasn't too far down the two way street so she did not have much further to walk, she could make it before her time limit that had been set the first day he had officially become her teacher.

"Alright almost there." She smirked as she ran up the steps of the brothers apartment building and slammed the door open before running through it. Another two flights of stairs led up to the boys dull brown apartment front door. She stopped to catch her break for just a second before pounding on the door furiously.

"Ten seconds late." Edward smirked as he opened the door and leaned against the frame lazily.

"Oh come on please just give me this one? Jericho kept me on the phone forever, I didn't even get to eat anything." She wined as she braced herself on her knees and breathed deeply, causing her chest to rise and fall noticeably. While she spoke he thought about going easy on her for once, until Jericho's name was mentioned. He visibly frowned after that and turned his head away from her.

"Circles." Was all that he stated as he headed towards his bed and lay down. His back was to her and his shirt was pushed upwards when he hit the bed. She found herself focusing on the small of his back, where an indent was formed by his body's position. She sighs as she steps into the room and shuts the door carefully behind her.

"Where's Alphonse?" she asks as she pulls the paper that rested on the table nearer and sat down to begin drawing empty circles. He made her draw a hundred perfect circles with no artistic aid whenever she was late. Since she messed them up quite a bit this task took her all day.

"What is the main philosophy that you need to embrace?" he asked without looking at her. She glared at his back for avoiding the question and sighed.

"I am God and God is me. As I perceive the world to be so it shall." She rested her cheek on her fist as she drew two circles, one inside the other, very quickly.

"That circle is so messed up I cant even look at it without wanting to laugh." She looked up to see him standing above her buttoning a bright white dress shirt.

"Where are you going like that?" she asked as she sat down the pencil she had been using. He looked down at the clothes he had quickly thrown on when the time on his clock above his bed had caught his eye. It was the only dressy outfit he owned and consisted of a shirt, a pair of pinstripe pants that where black with deep red stripes, and a pair of boots with very little scuffmarks across their surface. His tie that he was adjusting around his neck was on loan from Hawkeye who said she would not be seen with him in public with out one.

"Circles." He stated after as sigh. He then moved past her to the small bathroom to do his hair, brushing it back and tying it up in a simple ponytail about halfway up the back of his head. He looked so different that way and Emily did not like the look his reflection brought to his face. She moved quickly and grabbed his iconic red coat off of the hook and brought it to him.

"Here, it gets cold outside." She stated as she held it out to him.

"Hohenheim." He grumbled as he slipped it over his shoulders, moving at the speed a aging man would instead of his normal breakneck speeds she was so used to.

"Who?" she asked as he stood before her staring at the image of himself in the mirror.

"No one. Circles." He stated quickly and shoved past her and out of the tiny bathroom, "Alphonse will be back in ten minutes tops. Just draw your circles and try not to get kidnapped or you know attacked by any weirdos while I am gone. I don't think Al could take many more dents." He tapped the paper she had been drawing on as he spoke and then turned to walk quickly out of the door. The sould of the old lock clicking into place echoed throughout the room as she dropped down into her chair once again and sighed.

"I'll show you circles." She stated angrily before giving a defeated huff, "Man this sucks." She cried out as she began to draw the careful circles once again.

"Oh hey you're here." Alphonse stated as he bumbled through the door carrying four bags of different supplies a housewife would use. He sat them down on the kitchen counter and turned to see her stressed out form hunched over the page of circles. He chuckled lightly and sat in the floor beside her.

"You know, there is a trick to it." He stated as he looked over her shoulder curiously.

"What?" she jumped, dropping her pencil which Al picked up and offered back to her.

"There's a trick to drawing perfect circles, think of your hand as a compass, use your pinky as the center spike." He stated as he demonstrated this fact on a scrap sheet of paper.

"Hey thanks Alphonse!" she stated as her eyes lit up happily, "I think you may be a better teacher than your brother." She chuckled after her first few circles.

"Oh no, I just listen to his tricks and use those." He shrugged his shoulders as he waved his hands back and forth in front of his face. She laughed at the silly movement and stretched out her tired shoulders. The time ticked by slowly as she counted out more and more perfect circles. Alphonse had moved to the kitchen to make her some lunch as Edward's absence became ever more clear.

"Where did Ed have to go?" she asked as she tapped the page with the unsharpened end of her pencil.

"The State Alchemists from around the nation are meeting to discuss how to end the Homunculi problem." Al almost sounded like a prerecorded tape as he spoke. This caused her to tilt her head and rest the pencil against her bottom lip.

"What are we not allowed to go to? We do have information on the Homunculi that they need to hear if they're going to come up with a plan." She exclaimed as he finished the last few circles quickly.

"Edward's there remember? He will tell them what we have told him and what he has experienced as well" he placed a bowl of soup in front of her and nodded. She frowned as she stared at the thin stock and beef floating alongside noodles and other odd things.

"But he never asked me what I knew about their plans." She stated as she moved her spoon lazily around the soups surface.

"I guess he thought it was best not to ask you. He has already talked to Jericho and the others about it." Alphonse sat in the floor nearby and pulled a few stacks of books closer to himself.

"I was there longer than anyone though." She stated as she stood and stretched her tired limbs, "I should be the one telling them about it."

"Only State Alchemists are allowed at the meeting." She saw Alphonse shift as he turned the page in the book he had picked out. She moved to sit against the wall behind him and eyed the books he had picked out. They were all alchemical journals from alchemists that had chosen to leave their work in the Central Command library for future alchemist to read once they retired.

"Then to be able to tell them what I know I need to be a State Alchemist?" she muttered to herself as she pulled a book from the pile and flipped it open.

"You didn't eat my soup." Al stated as his head turned towards the table.

"It's not polite to eat if you don't." she returned without looking up from the book. Al shrugged causing the earsplitting squeal of metal on metal to echo through the room.

"Hey Alphonse why not take off the suit for a while?" she asked as her eyes trailed over to him.

"I can't." He stated softly. She set the book in her lap and leaned against the wall as she looked at him.

"Why not," she scratched her cheek as she asked the question, "It must be hot in that right?"

"I don't really feel anything." He turned his head towards her as he spoke, the childlike echoing voice always sounded out of place to her and this was especially true as he said those five words.

"What do you mean-"

"Man that meeting was so long!" she was cut off and scared at the same time by the sudden appearance of Edward, who came bounding through the door full force and went straight to the cooling bowl of soup sitting on the table. The two on the floor watched as he scarfed down the soup quickly and tied his hair back into the braid he usually wore.

"Oh, hey." He stated as he noticed Emily sitting there beside his brother.

"Hey, how did the meeting go?" she asked as she stood and moved towards him. He glanced at Alphonse then at her before turning and heading to his bed. He fell into the sheets and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"I'm tired, why don't you just head home for the day." The way he stated it made it clear it wasn't a question.

"But-"

"Don't worry about the deal today just go." He shouted suddenly cutting her off once again. She let out a small gasp as she stepped back from his sudden anger.

"Uh, okay. Thank you for today. Goodbye Edward, Alphonse." She bowed to each of them as she had bowed to Edward every day after lessons and left the boys in their home without another word. All the while she wondered what had gone on in that meeting to cause Edward such grief.

(End of Chapter 15)


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

She was surprised by the amount her home had changed since she started her training under Edward. After just a month it was covered in stacks of books and scrap papers covered in half drawn circles. Many different creations that she had tried on her own where thrown in a trash can, looking more like a pile of mangled corpses than wooden dolls. Every useable surface was covered in either instant noodles or notes to remind herself what she had done wrong on the last attempt at the simple creation.

"I am so pathetic." She groaned as she fell onto the only empty surface in her house, her bed. The image of Edward flashed across her mind as she lay face down in her pillows. He had been so angry when he told her to go home. It caused her to worry over what had happened exactly in the meeting he had been a part of.

"Roy." She sat up with a smile on her face as the idea popped into her head like a candle catching flame, "Roy would tell Jericho and of course he would tell me." She jumped out of her bed and ran down the hall towards her phone. Jericho's number had been taped above it by him for her to use in case she wanted to call him. She reached for the phone and stopped short of grabbing it. Somehow using him felt wrong, and on top of that she couldn't afford to owe him any favors.

"I should do this myself." She stated loudly as she grabbed her coat from the hook by the front door. She looked back at the home she had known for the last eleven months and let out a small sad sound. The feeling that her new road would lead her away from the last shred of family she had left suddenly overtook her. She shook off the feeling and stepped out of the open door, shutting it carefully behind her.

The streets where quiet as she made her way towards the very heart of the city, no children were out in the street and no adults either, the calm made her uneasy. In every bad situation she had ever been in there was always a calm before it; when her parents were murdered right after they had gotten home from a trip to the theater, and when she had been taken by Homunculi right after having a nice chat with who she had assumed to be her uncle. Every single good thing that had happened to her had been followed by immense heartbreak.

She punched the wall beside her and ground her teeth as her body shook. There was something going on with the State Alchemists; something that they weren't telling anyone, eve their apprentices. She pondered over if it could be along the same lines of what the Homunculi were attempting to sacrifice her, and the others to. These thoughts circled around her mind as she made her way towards the center of town. The sparse amount of pedestrians seemed to shrink more and more as she neared the large white building that was the Central Command.

"Emily?" she jumped at the sound of her name and turned to see Jericho standing behind her with a shocked look upon his face, "What are you doing out here, there's a curfew in order in the city." He stepped closer as he spoke, causing the silver buttons and straps on his bright blue uniform to glisten in the dying light.

"I was looking for you actually, I wanted to ask you something and-" she was cut off as he lifted one gloved finger to his hand and turned to his left quickly as if to investigate a sound that had caught his attention.

"We can't be out here. Come on." He grabbed her by the wrist and rushed towards the buildings that lay just behind the large Central Command building His housing unit was the furthest away from the main road and just across a two lane road from a wide open park that was easily viewed from his open window that sat above a worn out couch in his main room. She took this in as she stood in his entryway with her mouth hung slightly agape. His home, much like her own, was covered on every useable surface by half drawn circles and experimentations that he seemed to have finished with much better outcomes than her own. He had obviously taken to his new teachers slacker lifestyle and it showed in the stacks upon stacks of papers that seemed to simply be piled at random around the room.

"Sorry about the mess, it's really rare for me to bring people here during my training sessions." He stated quickly as he cleared off the couch to allow her a place to sit. Without a word she took the offered seat and clasped her hands in her lap as she watched him move busily around the room, packing away papers and tossing a few wooden figures in a large crate that sat by itself in the corner.

"I don't mind." She chuckled nervously as she rubbed one of her forearms and shrugged. He disappeared into a small kitchenette before returning with two steaming mugs of coffee. She watched as he sat up a small table before her and placed the mugs down.

"You like milk and sugar in your coffee right?" he asked as he turned to rush back into the tiny room behind him.

"Not so much anymore, I just drink it black when I drink it." She said quickly to stop him from leaving again, "Um, why don't you sit down and talk to me?" she asked in a softer voice that caused him to smile a bit at the thought of just how shy she seemed around him.

"Well you seem to have changed tastes over the past what, three months?" he asked as he slipped easily into the couch cushion beside her and stretched one arm across the back of the couch behind her head.

"Jericho, can we skip the small talk please? I have to ask you something." She cut in as she shifted forward subconsciously trying to stop him from touching her. He looked taken aback by her actions and slowly moved his hands to rest in his lap.

"This isn't a social call I take it." He grumbled as he looked away from her.

"No." she looked down at her clasped hands as she spoke, "Edward wouldn't tell me what happened at the meeting and now with the curfew and everything." She sighed and rubbed a strand of hair between two fingers as she thought of what to say, "Do you know what happened at the meeting?" she asked after a long pause and glanced at him out of the corners of her eyes as she did so.

"That's confidential." He stated abruptly causing her to jump a bit at the strength of his words.

"But why is it so secretive? Shouldn't the citizens know why they have to be scared?" she asked softly.

"You are not qualified to know that information." He frowned and pulled at his uniform as he spoke.

"Jericho?" she turned to get a better look at him as he looked away from her.

"You seriously haven't even noticed have you?" He asked as he stood and held out his arms causing the silver watch chain on his chest to rattle with his movements, "I thought that maybe you were just waiting to congratulate me when we were at my home but then you jump right into this issue that you have no part in at all. Then I thought, well she's distracted I should just give her a minute to figure it out but no. You are just worried about that dumb meeting that Roy slept through." He crossed his arms and frowned down at her, "I was there too you know, do you know why that is?" he tilted his head as an angered frown creased his brow.

"When did you take the test?" she asked in a quiet voice. His anger seemed to vanish before her eyes as he sighed and sat back down on the couch beside her. He sighed before running his hand through his dark red hair and leaned back to rest against the cushions behind him.

"A month ago, I wanted you to come but you were busy with the Elric brothers." He finally said. Guilt hung heavily in her stomach as she rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"I'm sorry. I would have made time for you if you would of told me." She added the second half quickly as she straightened her back.

"I wasn't so sure about that. You seem to spend every waking moment over there, I'm surprised you haven't taken your state alchemist test yet." His words caused her to frown and look away in self-loathing as it rocketed through her body.

"Why should I even try to get a test? I can't do anything at all." She sighed as she spoke, "Every time I try to make anything it turns out looking like a horror creature instead of what it's supposed to be." She hid her face in her hands as she spoke." I haven't come close to awakening my alchemical potential and all my teacher does is have me draw circles all day because I can never get there on time." She grumbled into her palms.

"Why don't you just leave out earlier? It seems to me that it's the obvious answer here." Jericho stated as he settled back against the couch once again.

"That would be much easier for me to do if I didn't have to spend three hours on the phone with someone every morning and night." She grumbled as she looked pointedly down at her shoes.

"I am so sorry that I am such an inconvenience to you." He growled as he spoke, the sound warning her that she was entering into dangerous territory.

"Jericho I didn't mean it as an accusation." She stated quickly.

"Yes it was." He sighed and stood as he ran his hand through his trimmed hair and looked around his small living room, "I only do that because we spend so little time together, I thought we would be closer by now but you still treat me like we are little kids who need play dates." He shook his head and looked down to where she sat dumbly on the couch.

"Jericho, I told you already that I find it hard to think of you any differently." She stated carefully.

"I told you that I would find a way to make you feel the same as I do." He retorted. She stood then with a frown on her face and crossed her arms angrily.

"You can't do that. People have their own minds." She snapped.

"I could if you wanted to grow up for once and act like we are adults, we never even go anywhere alone you always bring someone with you." He snapped. His sudden shouting caused her to shrink away from his form before looking nervously towards the door. He noticed these small movements and changed his stance to a less threatening one, "Listen I'm sorry, it's just stressful for me because I feel like we are just stuck in the beginning of our relationship and I want to move forward but I don't want to force you to move to fast, you however seem just comfortable as friends." She looked down as the hurt became more and more apparent in his voice as he spoke. She couldn't look into his bright blue eyes as the silence in the room settled about them heavily.

"I told you when you decided we were a thing that I didn't think of you in that way and couldn't no matter how hard I tried." She stated softly.

"I don't think you tried all that hard." He grumbled as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet. She let out a frustrated sigh as she watched him look around the tiny space.

"Jericho," she began with a small angry grumble.

"I get it Emily, to you I'm always going to be eight years old and scared of dogs." He grumbled loudly without looking at her.

"I'm sorry." She stated. After her words died away he scoffed and turned towards the door that led deeper into his living quarters.

"You never even asked me what I go by now." He let loose a soft ironic chuckle before looking upwards," I don't think I even exist to you when we aren't talking or face to face." He sighed the sentence and dropped his shoulders still looking up at the ceiling above his head.

"I'm-"

"You're sorry I know." He snapped once again before stomping from the room and cutting off their conversation.

She stood still for a moment watching his shadow disappear behind the corner past the doorway before fresh warm tears slid down her cheek. It was clear to her that her actions were causing him pain, but at the same time she couldn't force herself to act in the way that would make him happy. She struggled with the thought of him as anything more than a friend for months and still could not bring herself to think of him romantically. As she thought through the last few months of her life an open journal caught her eye, Jericho's scrawling handwriting covered the pages and at the top he had scribbled The Glass Alchemist three times in the margin he had left himself as if to try to remember it specifically. She wiped away the tears that had accumulated on her cheeks and looked away from the book just to find her eyes lingering on his still new looking military uniform jacket. The sight of it caused her to think of Roy Mustang and the night he had draped his coat over her shoulders after she passed out beside an injured Edward.

She stood then and moved quietly towards his front door. Hanging on a wall beside it was a small memo pad with a fountain pen resting atop it; she took this in her hand and wrote out a quick apology to him, explaining that she had to think things through fully and she did not know if she wanted to go further in this relationship when she felt she had been forced into it. With that done she left his living quarters quickly and moved towards the tall structure that housed Roy's office with her head hanging slightly as the weight of the world settled once again on her shoulders.

(End of chapter 16: I want to take this time to thank my loyal readers for noticing and sometimes even liking my work. Each one of you are precious to me and I do take each criticism into account because I believe that you are the ones who can make my story great. Please continue to read and even tell me how you feel about my work when you find the time. I try to respond to every review personally and I will work your ideas into my story somehow some way. I do apologize for taking so long to write this but personal issues in my life have kept me away from here for a while. I still hope to write at least 25 chapters if not more to this story because in all honesty I am finding it hard to end Emily's journey.

I love you guys!)


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